The Kids Grow Up

In his internationally acclaimed documentary 51 Birch Street, Doug Block examined his parents' seemingly ordinary marriage and uncovered a universal story about the mystery of family. The Kids Grow Up is a follow-up and companion piece in which Block turns his lens on his family once more, this time from his own vantage point as a parent, to tell a larger story about fathers and daughters, marriage and modern-day parenting.

“A profound, and utterly relatable, contemplation of…. parenthood, aging and youth’s swift passing.” (Anthony Kaufman, indieWIRE)

“A chronicle of ordinary life that is partly a scrapbook, partly a memoir and, most movingly, an essay on the passage of time and the mysterious connections between parents and children.” (A.O. Scott, New York Times)

“Ranks as one of the best non-fiction films of the year.” (John P. McCarthy, Boxoffice)

“The same qualities that sometimes make The Kids Grow Up tough to watch also make it irresistible.” (Andrew O’Hehir, Salon)

“It's a film about the frustrations and fears of every parent.” (Aaron Hillis, Time Out New York)

Lucy Block is Doug’s only child, and over the years he has captured much of her life – and their close relationship – on camera. An established documentary filmmaker, Block has long mulled incorporating the footage into a film some day about the parenting experience. It’s only when Lucy turns 17, however, and is a year away from leaving home for college, that he begins to fully understand the real subject of his film – the emotionally-charged period when children separate from their parents and parents must separate from their children.

The Kids Grow Up is Block’s funny and poignant account of his year of learning to let go. It turns out to be an unexpectedly turbulent time of transition for the entire family. Doug's step-son Josh (14 years Lucy's elder) has a child, making Doug and his wife Marjorie first-time grandparents. Marjorie endures an episode of clinical depression, her first in 13 years. Lucy has her first serious romantic relationship, then grapples with whether or not to break it off before she leaves. And Doug is in complete denial of his advancing age even as he braces for Lucy’s departure and the looming empty nest.

Fluidly moving back and forth in time, we see Lucy blossom from precocious kid to serious and self-possessed young woman over the course of the film. In the process, the eternal father-child struggle for control versus independence plays out through the camera with great warmth and humor. Marjorie expresses frustration with Doug over his “buddy-buddy” relationship with Lucy, and how it signifies a larger unwillingness to grow up. Meanwhile, Doug’s ongoing effort to come to terms with the rigidly authoritarian upbringing of his own father illustrates just how far parenting styles have changed over the generations.

Told from Block's engaging first-person perspective, The Kids Grow Up breathes fresh insight into the wonderful and daunting relationship between parent and child. Sons and daughters frequently make films about their parents, including Block himself. This time, however, a parent is making a film about his child, albeit in an era when kids grow up faster and “baby boomer” adults stay younger longer. As Doug grapples, often less than gracefully, with letting go of his daughter, it becomes apparent that The Kids Grow Up is not just Lucy's coming of age story but very much her father's as well.

Director's Statement
Many years ago, when I set out to become a proverbial “big-time” movie director, the last thing I expected was that my greatest filmmaking success would result from an intensely personal documentary about my relatively normal family.

51 BIRCH STREET (released in 2006), was a film I never intended to make. I mean, who in their right mind would actually plan to make a documentary about their parents’ unhappy marriage? Certainly not me. That is, until a series of surprises and discoveries in the wake of my mother’s unexpected death caused me to reevaluate every assumption I had about my family. In the process, I realized I had accidentally tapped into a story that could (and thankfully did) resonate with audiences throughout the world.

In stark contrast to 51 BIRCH STREET, if I didn’t exactly plan to make THE KIDS GROW UP, it’s a film that’s been percolating in the back recesses of my brain for a considerable time. My daughter Lucy has always had a natural camera presence, and I couldn’t help but think there was a fascinating documentary to be made about parenting over the long haul from a father’s perspective. The only problem was that I could never quite get a handle on what form such a film might take. It never seemed enough to simply see a little girl grow up on camera.

As the years (and other film projects) flew by, and many hours of footage accumulated, it continued to feel like a subject in search of a story. And that was fine by me. While a film might never come to pass, I was perfectly happy to have captured an ongoing chronicle of my only child, and of our close and loving relationship, if only for posterity.

It was only when Lucy turned 17, and it suddenly hit me that only one year remained before she would leave the nest for college, that I fully grasped the immediacy of the situation. Envisioning the ending, the emotion-packed moment of goodbye that parenthood inevitably leads to, gave a very clear structure to THE KIDS GROW UP. And it provided the tone, as well. It was no longer just a humorous, if heartfelt, look at a father-daughter relationship playing out through my camera over time. Lurking underneath was a serious story about a baby boomer parent struggling with aging and loss, and learning how to let go.

It’s exceedingly difficult to make personal documentaries, and THE KIDS GROW UP was, if anything, even more daunting than 51 BIRCH STREET. As the film makes clear, Lucy had a healthy amount of ambivalence about being filmed at certain moments. My rule of thumb was to be as sensitive to her feelings as possible, begin shooting only when she was okay with it and be prepared to turn the camera off whenever she told me to. Still, Lucy is emotionally vulnerable in several scenes and, when it comes to your child, your parental instinct is to protect. Lucy was the first to see different cuts of the film and was given multiple opportunities to “pull the plug” on it if she felt it would adversely impact her life. The only way I could make THE KIDS GROW UP was to be a father first and filmmaker second, although, as the film shows, I certainly tried my best to be both at the same time.

My wife Marjorie is extremely exposed in the film, as well, and not just because the looming empty nest cast a degree of anxiety over our marriage. She is also shown, and on one occasion briefly interviewed, in the midst of a serious depressive episode that at times left her unable to get out of bed. Even with her permission, I wrestled internally for two months before I was able to point a camera in her direction in that condition.

Marjorie, who has always been open about her history of depression, especially appreciates that the film will help de-stigmatize the subject by depicting someone who suffers a depressive episode and then recovers without making a big fuss about it.

And so I’ve made another extremely personal film about my family, one that I hope will stand alone from 51 BIRCH STREET and, at the same time, work as a companion piece. Having produced a number of personal documentaries, as well as having made my own (and in the middle of making yet another), I fully understand the pitfalls involved. However, the more I’ve travelled with these films around the world, the more I’ve come to realize that there’s nothing more powerful or affecting than authentically sharing who we are as human beings with one another. I’m proud and grateful that my wife and daughter feel the same way, and that they trusted I would present their lives and experiences on film in an honest and, hopefully, entertaining way.

Finally, one regrettable aspect of making first-person docs is that people often come away from them with the misconception that I create them by myself. Happily, I had a number of extraordinarily talented collaborators who made the film infinitely better and the process infinitely more enjoyable. To composer H. Scott Salinas, associate producer Gabriel Sedgwick, editor Maeve O’Boyle and, particularly, my producing partner Lori Cheatle, I give my heartfelt thanks and everlasting appreciation.

Doug Block (Director, producer, camera) is a New York-based filmmaker whose work includes some of the most acclaimed feature documentaries of the past 20 years.

Doug’s most recent film, 51 Birch Street, was named one of the Ten Best Films of 2006 by the New York Times, The Chicago Sun-Times and the Ebert & Roeper Show, and was selected as one of the outstanding documentaries of the year by the National Board of Review, the Boston Society of Film Critics and Rolling Stone Magazine. The film garnered numerous awards, including Best Overall Program at the 2008 Banff Television Awards. 51 Birch Street screened at dozens of international film festivals, followed by a 9-month U.S. theatrical release. It aired on HBO, ZDF/Arte, Channel Four and many other stations worldwide.

Doug’s first film, The Heck With Hollywood! screened at leading international film festivals before being released theatrically in the U.S. by Original Cinema. The Heck With Hollywood! was broadcast internationally and on PBS and Bravo in the U.S. His second feature was the Emmy-nominated film Home Page, a look at the early days of online culture. Called “Groundbreaking” by Roger Ebert, the film screened at the Sundance and Rotterdam Festivals and was broadcast on HBO, IFC and in Europe
after a theatrical release.

His credits as producer include: Silverlake Life (Sundance Grand Jury Prize, Peabody, Prix Italia), Jupiter’s Wife (Sundance Special Jury Award, Emmy), Love and Diane (Independent Spirit Award), Paternal Instinct (Best Feature Film – NY Gay & Lesbian Film Festival) and A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory (top doc prizes at the Berlin and Tribeca film festivals). He is currently producing Amy Hardie’s The Edge of Dreaming, a co-production with Channel Four, ZDF/Arte, VPRO and Scottish Screen.

Doug is also the founder and co-host of The D-Word (www.d-word.com), a popular online discussion forum for documentary professionals worldwide.

THE KIDS GROW UP has also played at:
IDFA (Amsterdam)
Full Frame
Sarasota
Hot Docs
Silverdocs
Maine
Dokufest (Kosovo)
EIDF (S. Korea)
Woodstock