Premiere Date: July 31, 2007
Synopsis
Filmmaker Ralph Arlyck first met Sean while living as a graduate student in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury neighborhood at the height of the 1960s. On the third floor of Arlyck's building was a come-one-come-all crashpad apartment from which the precocious four-year-old Sean would occasionally wander downstairs to visit and talk. One day Arlyck turned on his camera, and Sean's casual commentary on everything from smoking pot to living with speed freaks was delivered in simple sincerity resulting in a famous 15-minute film. Thirty years, three generations, and a lifetime later, Arlyck has returned to San Francisco in search of the adult Sean might have become. And what he finds, to his surprise, tells him as much about his own East Coast migration as it does about the Californian life he left behind.
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Filmmaker
I was living in the Haight, and there was this wonderful, precocious, audacious four-year-old living upstairs from me. I was a film student at the time, and I needed a project, so I decided to film him.”
— Ralph Arlyck, Filmmaker
View the Film
Film Update
July 31, 2007
Critical Acclaim
You will be deeply, quietly moved.”
— Ann Hornaday
The Washington Post
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Reviews & Reactions
Average Review
| based on 1 review
Following Sean
I enjoyed this film much more than I had anticipated I would. I thought it might be amusing, perhaps frustrating, and instead I found it to be a tender slice of American life. Sean, both as a child and an adult seems a sincere and thoughtful person trying to live true to his own leaning. He seems emotional about his parent's choices, but not angry. I appreciate the honesty of Ralph Arlyck, the film maker, and his subjects. I enjoyed the continuous paralleling of the lives of Arlyck's family with that of Sean's. How precious is freedom and what is required to experience it? A great film.
by Liz Winchester from Chicago, IL
November 24, 2009, 1:32 AM