Institutional Award: Michael Apted’s ‘Up’ Series

For nearly half a century, director Michael Apted has followed the life progress of 14 British children in his acclaimed Up series. Just 7 years old when 7Up was filmed in 1964, the subjects now are well into middle age. Eight installments of the series have been produced. The latest, 56Up, debuted in 2012. Interviews with the participants since 7Up have been voluntary, and all but one of the original 14 shared life updates in 56Up. Experiencing Apted’s series is like catching up with old friends as they face life’s challenges and comforts. We feel an intimacy with the subjects; they make us feel good, refreshed or depressed as we watch them age. The original idea behind the series was to examine the realities of the British class system at a time when the culture was experiencing extraordinary upheaval, with the assumption that each child‘s social class would predetermine his or her future. While that assumption has been borne out to a great degree, the series has long since become more personal than political. Notable for its creator’s patience and its subjects’ humanity, the Up series, a unique social document, receives an Institutional Peabody Award.