In 1966, Ralph Arlyck had the clairvoyance (or good luck) to move to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where he experienced the crest of the counterculture at its source. A film student, he had a camera on his shoulder and some really good material around him.
| “FOLLOWING SEAN” (Three stars)One boy’s life: A gentle and observant documentary in which director Ralph Arlyck tracks down the little boy who was the subject of a student film he made in the late 1960s.
Rated: Not rated; probably PG-13 for subject matter Now showing: Varsity |
Remembering that era in his new film “Following Sean,” Arlyck admits it didn’t seem like any kind of golden age at the time. “It was mixed,” he recalls, “the way the present always is.” Arlyck made a short film about the plain-talking four-year-old son of his upstairs neighbors, and saw the movie enjoy success on the film festival circuit.
“Following Sean” is built around the canny idea of locating that little boy, Sean Farrell, 30 years later, and seeing what he made of his life. The result is a gentle, quietly observant movie. It owes something to the remarkable “7 Up” series produced in Britain, where camera crews check up on a group of people every seven years, tracking their progress through life.
Arlyck isn’t sure what he’ll find. As a boy, Sean spoke breezily about his parents giving him marijuana and allowing him to run free. Did Sean grow up to be a hopeless dope fiend, or did he rebel against his parents’ hang-loose philosophy and go straight?
Well, neither. Sean turns out to be a union electrician (a job almost predicted by his youth – we see footage of his father teaching him how to use remarkably grown-up tools on various DIY projects). He still has a wry sense of humor, seems like a responsible citizen, and picks up a Russian bride during the years Arlyck films him.
Sean’s father becomes another main character. He kept his freak flag flying all these years, doing odd jobs and insisting on his freedom. Sean regards him with considerable humor but a great deal of affection, too.
Other people emerge, although we don’t see enough of Sean’s mother, who gave up early on her marriage to Sean’s father when the couple’s “open marriage” philosophy brought a mistress into the house. And Sean’s grandparents, dyed-in-the-wool American Communists, have an interesting history of their own, which Arlyck shares via the grandmother’s zesty memories and some fascinating archival footage from the days of the Red Scare.
Meanwhile, Arlyck considers his own life, and the changes that 30-plus years have brought. “Following Sean” is somewhat in the mold of Ross McElwee’s personal documentaries, but Arlyck doesn’t have McElwee’s winning taste for the absurd. His movie is at its best when it sticks with Sean and his peculiar life, which Sean himself takes in stride. For him, it’s probably mixed, the way the present always is.
Sean Farrell as a youngster.
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