Seven Up

Seven Up is a 1960s documentary directed by Michael Apted. For this film, Apted selected fourteen British children to follow and interview. All of the children selected were seven years old. Seven Up is considered to be a social documentary due to the fact that the children who Apted selected to follow all come from different social backgrounds. Apted is trying to show the audience that social class determines everything in British culture. At the beginning of the film, Apted states, "Give me a child til he's seven and I'll give you the man." By saying this, Apted is trying to prove that at the young age of seven, British children already have the rest of their lives mapped out. Apted is showing the viewers that there is indeed a social script in Britain. One's class determines where they go to school and what type of education they can get. The education that they end up receiving will structure the rest of these children's lives. Seven Up happens to be an overly political documentary because Michael Apted is trying to tell people that it is unfair to get a different education simply because of social class.

Seven Up can be classified as the participatory mode of documentary filmmaking. In Seven Up, the director Michael Apted interacts with the subjects he is filming. Apted narrates and asks the children questions. A majority of the questions Apted asks the children are leading questions. He already knows the answers to these questions, but he wants to get the children to talk about it. One of the questions that the children are asked is where they are planning on going to school after they finish up where they are at now. By looking at the social class that these children belong to, Apted is already able to determine the answer to this question. In response to the question, the children are able to tell Apted where they plan on going to school next and even what they plan on doing after finishing up at that next school. These children are only seven and know exactly what their futures hold.

The original intent of this documentary was to make one film that showed that there was a social script which existed in Britain. However, Seven Up was so popular that Apted decided to make a new sequel every seven years updating the viewers on the lives of these fourteen children. By following these children over the years, Seven Up and the series that follow end up becoming an open documentary series. Apted does not know what is going to happen or what the final outcome will be.

One problem with Seven Up is the number of characters involved. There are fourteen people that the audience is trying to follow. It is hard for the audience to keep straight who is who, and they also have a difficult time making connections with the children