Michael Apted

by MovieMaker Staff | Published October 16, 2006

There aren’t many moviemakers who have as long and varied a career as Michael Apted. Born in England in 1941, Apted studied law and history at Cambridge University before embarking on his impressively diverse filmography. He’s done Bond flicks (The World Is Not Enough) and award-winning biopics (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist), but it’s his background in television and investigative journalism that is at the heart of his lifelong project, the acclaimed UP Series.

Originally broadcast as a “World in Action” special in 1964, the series has followed the lives of a group of British men and women since the age of seven, returning every seven years to document the turns their lives have taken. The latest installment, 49 UP, premiered at the IFC Center in New York on October 6th. Now 49 years old and well into middle-age, the largest amount of original interview subjects to date have returned to be captured by Apted’s camera, reflecting not only on the events of the last seven years, but also on the effect the documentaries have had on their lives.

For those of you who missed out on the previous chapters of this revolutionary project, you’re in luck. In honor of the return of the UP Series, First Run Features has declared October â€œUP Monthâ€â€”and is offering a 35 percent discount through the end of the month on the box set, available through their Website. For more information, visit http://firstrunfeatures.com/upseries.html.