Coquitlam Public Library

Not fourteen again

eng

videorecording

Not fourteen again

956893506

Originally produced by Spirited Films in 1996

89

In 1977, Armstrong was commissioned by the South Australian Film Corporation to make a documentary about 14 year old Adelaide girls, Smokes and Lollies. It was her first paid job as director. “I think documentary filmmaking is very, very hard. It doesnt completely suit my personality.” The film explored issues surrounding what it meant to be a teenager and asked questions about sex, family, work and school. Armstrong then developed her own interest in the girls and went back to interview them again at ages 18, 26 and 33. Not Fourteen Again is in the style of Michael Apteds 7 Up series (1964-1998, ongoing) in that the edit revisits material shot from the previous three films and intersperses them with current interviews. Unlike Apteds series which sprang from a psychological hypothesis, Smokes and Lollies was only ever meant as a stand-alone project and it was Armstrongs own interest in the girls lives that kept her coming back. The subsequent films grew out of the first film. Despite the difficulty and randomness of this film, Armstrong presents a warm, compassionate view of the lives of these women and their daughters. By the the time this film was shot, she has started interviewing the next generation of children, who are by now teenagers. The film is so emotionally compelling that although at the time, Armstrong had announced it was the final film in the series, she went on to shoot Love, Lust and Lies in 2010

live action

Not 14 again