Following Sean (2006)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Since You've Been Sean

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Back in 1969, filmmaker Ralph Arlyck made a small splash on the film festival circuit with his film Sean, a documentation of a four year-old living on San Francisco's Haight Street among the hippies, roaming free and smoking pot. Years later Arlyck tracks down the grown-up Sean Farrell and attempts to find out what happened to him. Following Sean is like a less clinical, more personal 42 Up (1999), in which the filmmaker acknowledges his own part in his subject's life. Through his narration, Arlyck keeps us up to date on his own feelings and thoughts and how he thinks they are affecting his film. But the more he opens up, the more reclusive Sean becomes. Sean has a way with the camera, and he comes across as uncommonly intelligent and even somewhat funny, without ever giving away anything truly painful or revealing. Yet, he's surprisingly effective; you want to keep spending time with him. Because of its emotional wanderings and immense chronological scope, Following Sean is an almost shapeless film. But it's clever enough to know that its multiple reflections eventually reveal something profound.