Educational Media Reviews Online

Zerotentwenty, consisting of three 50 minutes segments, begins in 1992, the time of the first Rio Earth Summit and follows the lives of 11 children who were born in that year up until the time they are 20 years old. The premise is to analyze how these children's lives had been affected by the changes brought on by the Summit. The children are from diverse places: Brazil, China, India, Kenya, Latvia, Norway, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, England and the United States.

The series succinctly traces their lives and the various events that influence their paths to adulthood; however, the filmmakers make few explicit connections to the Earth Summit, leaving the viewer to wonder what impact the summit actually had.

At a total of 150 minutes, the series feels both too short and overly long. Covering the lives of 11 children means that each child gets about 14 minutes of screen time to encapsulate 20 years of their lives. These brief glimpses do not do the children justice.

Seeing them in such a limited way makes it difficult to feel engaged making each episode drag. Giving more screen time to each child certainly would have extended the running time but would have made for a more interesting experience and provided the series the epic feel that the filmmakers seemed to have been going for. One only has to look at the success of Michael Apted's Up series to know that such an endeavor could be a welcomed one.

On the whole, each child's story sheds some light on what growing up in different parts of the world is like. These comparisons, especially those documenting the differences between first and third world lifestyles, are the most compelling parts of the documentary. Thus, Zerotentwenty is not without some educational value; however, it fails to deliver on its promise of presenting something really special.