What are you afraid of? What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you love the most?

 

As we get older, the answers to these questions change and the questions themselves become more complicated.

 

Already in the third year of filming, this documentary traces nine kids ranging in age from 3-15. All related to us, and all living in small towns across the country, their series of interviews gives us a glimpse into what it means to be coming of age at this time in America.

 

We were inspired by documentaries like Russian political activist Nikita Mikhalkov's 13-year documentary of his daughter, Anna, and Michael Apted's continuing Up Series which interviews an initial group of 14 British children every seven years.

 

It was interesting to see Russian and British history play out through the eyes of the children interviewed, but it was even more interesting to see how the children's views of their world and themselves changed year after year.

 

Even as adults, the participants in the Up Series continued to evolve and pass through different phases which were eerily similar to each other.

 

My older brother once said, "I used to think I was a certain way. Now I realize I was just a certain age, and everyone's a certain way at a certain age." Is it true?

 

All rights reserved, Copyright 2006© The Hatchery Media.