When I was at Modern Media Man I was able to meet Doug Block. Doug is a documentary filmmaker who is releasing at very personal movie on October 29th. The movie is called The Kids Grow Up. The movie centers on Doug as a father documenting life with his only daughter, Lucy. I went to his session on how much is too much to share about your kids online. I watched Doug’s trailer for his movie and was very moved by it and wanted to see the whole thing. I had a prior engagement the night it was shown to attendees and so I missed it. When I met Doug later he gave me a screener of the movie to review. Opinions are 100% mine

Here is the Trailer –

Watching the film is interesting. It jumps from time to time and place to place. We learn about Doug’s relationship with his family, his stepson, his wife, his father and mother and of course Lucy. The film is interspersed with segments of Lucy at different periods of her life as she experiences many things like deciding upon colleges, having boyfriends and more. However the overarching theme is how do you let your children leave after all those years of watching them grow up and nurturing them.

I was a little uncomfortable at times watching the movie and there are moments where you want Doug to put the camera down and be in the moment rather than looking at life through a lens. I feel this at times when I am taking photos of Eva. I’m seeing her in that moment in my mind rather than experiencing the moments with her.

AS you go further through the movie you see that it is more about Doug and how he is dealing with the relationships in his life. Dealing with being a grandfather and having his daughter leave while at the same time dealing with a wife who was battling depression. The movie is very emotionally raw and real.

There is a point where Lucy says that she is tired of being filmed and yet the camera still rolls with Doug telling her that these are memories that will last a lifetime. but, will they be good memories? Many times I was shouting for Doug to put down the damn camera. I could sympathize with Lucy getting upset at being filmed. Later Doug contemplates stopping filming all together. Lucy then asks him to continue shooting.

I did like the talks that Doug had with his father and how much insight his father had now and wish he knew then. We learn as we go and don’t know enough in the moment. Those were some of the toughest and yet memorable moments for me in this movie.

I encourage other Dads to watch this movie and see different ways of being a father.