“˜The Kids Grow Up’ turns the lens on home videos and the right to privacy1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteEarly in “The Kids Grow Up,” Doug Block’s captivating documentary about his teenage daughter’s final year at home before leaving for college, he describes his rising feelings of anxiety as her departure became a concrete reality.
While images of Lucy Block growing up play lyrically across the screen, it becomes clear that she’s a child whose rapport with the camera is as intimate and easy as with a family member.
As Block explains, not only was his daughter born “at the dawn of the consumer camcorder,” but throughout her years growing up, she suffered “the double misfortune of having a documentary filmmaker for a father.”
As “The Kids Grow Up” toggles gracefully between images of Lucy as an enchanting toddler and those of an equally beguiling, self-possessed young woman, the film indelibly captures the fishbowl life of a generation that came of age in front of cameras – mostly wielded by fathers – that served as devices for both neurotic attachment and emotional distance.
