"Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man''. These were the words that inspired Michael Apted to gather 14 seven-year-olds, from a variety of backgrounds and interview them. Every seven years, those then children, are interviewed to see what has become of them. They are now 42 years old.
What once was meant as a documentary about British social conditions has now gained cult following. Every seven years, viewers anxiously anticipate what has become of the now familiar names of Paul, Nick Jackie, Tony and most especially Neil. Neil, the young happy boy who declared he was going to be an astronaut, instead dropped out of university, and at one stage, was living on the streets. Many letters and gifts, such as a handmade jumper, flooded the producers, emphasising what an impact his plight had had on viewers. The debut of 42Up in the UK had an audience of over six million people.
The movie is well done, its not necessary to have seen the previous installments of the series to understand this, and perhaps it demonstrates that what once started as an impersonal project now touches the hearts of people all around the world.

The Last Days won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary last year and was produced by Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation. In 1944 as Soviet armies approached Hungary and the end of the war was in sight Hitler demanded that all Hungarian Jews be rounded up and shipped to camps, even if it meant taking resources away from other fronts. 70 percent of Hungary's one million Jews were murdered within a few months. The film follows five survivors from the Hungarian Holocaust (each with a remarkable tale) and features an interview with Hans Munch, a German doctor stationed in Auschwitz who avoided prosecution by surreptitiously doing favors for many of the captives. The documentary's main aim is to not explain why the Holocaust happened, but to give the victims a face and a voice. Archival footage of the notorious camps, such as Dachau and Auschwitz, is used sparingly but effectively.