EAU CLAIRE — Michael Apted’s “42 Up” (United Kingdom 1998), the sixth installment in the longest-running real-life documentary series ever filmed, will be presented Nov. 30-Dec. 3 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
          The International Film Society presentation will screen at 6 and 8:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday in Davies Theatre.
          In 1964 Apted interviewed 14 children for a TV documentary titled “7 Up.” All of the children were 7-year-olds and from completely different backgrounds — a snapshot of children from all over Britain.
          Apted, who went on to become the acclaimed director of “Gorillas in the Mist,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “Thunderheart,” has returned to those children every seventh year to chart their progress through life.
          “42 Up” is the latest fascinating installment. Of the original 14 subjects, 11 remain. Now halfway through their lives, how close are they to realizing their dreams and ambitions? This film gives viewers an understanding of the lives of these people, as well as of British life as
          a whole in the late 1990s.
          “To look at these films, as I have every seven years, is to meditate on the astonishing fact that man is the only animal that knows it lives in time,” wrote film critic Roger Ebert. “This series should be sealed in a time capsule. It is on my list of the 10 greatest films of all time and is a noble use of the medium.”
          The 139-minute film is rated PG.
          Tickets, available at the University Service Center, (715) 836-3727, are $2 for International Film Society members and UW-Eau Claire faculty and staff or $1 for UW-Eau Claire students.
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JS/BW

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Updated: Nov. 20, 2000