February 22, 2006

Following Sean
Written and Directed by Ralph Arlyck
Opens Fri., Jan. 20, at the Varsity Theater

By LESTER GRAY
Arts Editor

Director and writer Ralph Arlyck isn’t so much Following Sean, as he has entitled his documentary; he is looking to find himself.

If that sounds oh-so-’60s, that’s because it is: a self-indulgent, occasionally embarrassing, but captivating examination by a filmmaker confronting his own worth. The thread holding this introspective together is the revisiting of a subject that informed his noteworthy documentary film 30 years earlier.

In the heyday of flower children, Vietnam War protests, and folks who did inhale, Arlyck lived in San Francisco’s legendary Haight-Ashbury district; a mecca for Hippies from all over the world. Fulfilling a film class assignment, he interviewed a precocious four-year old named Sean. The young boy, who lived upstairs in a crash-pad with his parents, had free rein to roam the apartment building and the streets on which it was located, mixing with political progressives, good-hearted idealists, and riffraff.

The finished product, in which Sean eloquently holds forth on using pot, speed freaks, and what he viewed as a brutal San Francisco police force, attracted national attention from a wide spectrum of viewers, including Congress. The film also launched the documentary career of Arlyck, the success of which comes under scrutiny as this, his latest offering, unwinds.

The ostensible core of this sequel is a sociological follow-up: what happened to the offspring of the love generation, to children who grew up under liberal let-them-do-their-own-thing philosophies?

Sean, now in his 30s, displays few if any obvious signs that reflect what some would call a dysfunctional upbringing. He has neither rebelled into a conservative lifestyle nor ensnarled himself in substance abuse. A responsible member of society, he displays considerable purpose and equanimity. Although Arlyck repeatedly solicits soundbites from his subject, looking to unearth some connection to an unstructured childhood, nothing of significance emerges.

As the filmmaker interviews other members of Sean’s colorful family and continues to find little support for the anticipated narrative, he interlaces bits of how his own life has developed since he produced the original film. While in The Haight he had considered himself an observer, as opposed to a true subscriber, to the culture’s liberated philosophies. But during the course of this film he comes to suspect himself of the improvidence he saw in others.

Figuring prominently in the film are Arlyck’s relationships with his parents and his wife, as they were part of this saga from the beginning. Significantly they appear to be the sources of underwriting for a career that has proved mediocre. His wife, a partner since the early years and apparently the chief breadwinner, does not offer judgment. You can’t help but feel she’s been disappointed, although supportive, for some time.

Now nearly 60, Arlyck produces what is most likely his best piece: cathartic and honest, in which his life, rather than Sean’s, serves as a commentary on the philosophies of the Love Generation — credos that advised against the nine-to-five grind and promoted the rewards of creative freedom.

In Following Sean, the filmmaker nakedly offers his story up for examination, winnowing his illusions. There’s a sense of regret but no melancholy.

Arlyck wisely demurs on a tidy denouement, which would fly in the face of his artistic prescripts. The film is patient, and so must the audience be. It unfolds nicely; the revelations of what Sean isn’t and Arlyck is makes for a compelling film.