Following Sean

In 1969, Ralph Arlyck scored a minor film festival hit with “Sean,” a 14-minute documentary short about a four-year-old living in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood who raised many eyebrows by running barefoot through the streets and freely speaking about smoking and eating marijuana. For no clear reason, Arlyck decided to track down the adult Sean Farrell, who is now enjoying a successful career as an electrician in the Bay Area. However, the affable Farrell's rather quotidian daily routine is not compelling enough to warrant a feature-length profile, so Arlyck casts his cinematic net very wide to include Farrell's parents (who divorced shortly after the original short film was completed), his sister (a cleaning lady planning on a long-delayed college degree), and his grandparents (who were Communist Party organizers in the 1950s). But their stories only take us so far, so Arlyck turns autobiographical by bringing his wife, sons, and parents into Following Sean, with the result being a rickety mess that travels in multiple directions yet never arrives anywhere. DVD extras include the original “Sean,” deleted scenes, and a filmmaker interview. Not recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)