Documentary Growing 1981 Larry Rivers Download Updated 2021 〈INSTANT - Breakdown〉
The film's very existence touches on a critical failure: the inability of children to provide meaningful consent. While Rivers's daughters were physically present, their psychological capacity to understand and reject such an invasive project was, by definition, underdeveloped. As Emma would later state, she felt pressured into participating in the project and that her experiences inflicted lasting psychological harm. She subsequently developed anorexia as a teenager, a struggle she has directly linked to the trauma of being filmed in such a manner.
For researchers, art historians, and academics studying Larry Rivers' multimedia career, legitimate access is restricted to official cultural institutions:
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: Emma Tamburlini publicly condemned the film, describing the experience as traumatic and labeling the footage as "child pornography". She attributed her subsequent struggle with anorexia to the intrusive filming.
returned the original films and tapes to Rivers' daughters, Gwynne and Emma, after they protested the university's acquisition of the materials. The university agreed that the content was "problematic" and potentially inappropriate for a public archive. Current Ownership:
Materiality and Memory Like Rivers’s canvases, the film is attentive to material traces: the texture of film grain, the physicality of objects, and the residue of past events. Memory in Documentary Growing appears tactile and unreliable—stains, rewinds, and jump cuts become metaphors for how recollection is fragmented. This treatment makes the film as much about the act of remembering as about what is remembered; it invites viewers to read gaps and ruptures as meaningful elements rather than failures of continuity. The film's very existence touches on a critical
Unlike mainstream films from 1981, Growing has not received a widespread commercial DVD, Blu-ray, or mainstream streaming release (such as on Criterion Channel or Netflix). Because the film deals with highly sensitive themes involving minors, distribution rights are tightly controlled by the estate to prevent unauthorized exploitation or misuse of the footage. Therefore, updated, legal digital downloads on public platforms remain virtually non-existent. 3. Underground Film Networks
Currently, the film is withheld from public view and distribution to respect the privacy and wishes of Rivers’ children. Where to Watch Larry Rivers Instead
Larry Rivers changed the trajectory of art by proving that figurative art could be modern, cynical, energetic, and profound all at once. The 1981 documentary, "Growing," is a crucial component of that narrative, showcasing a master who never stopped evolving. She subsequently developed anorexia as a teenager, a
Beginning in the early 1970s, Rivers began a film project that he intended to be a raw, observational documentary about his two daughters, Emma and Gwynne. Twice a year for six years, Rivers would set up his camera and interview the girls. The topic? Their bodies, their burgeoning sexuality, and their physical development. The footage showed the girls sometimes topless, sometimes completely naked, as their father asked them intimate questions.
Growing stands as a stark reminder of the boundary-pushing—and frequently polarizing—nature of 20th-century avant-garde art. By documenting the exact moment his children transitioned from childhood to adulthood, Larry Rivers created a piece of media that challenges the viewer's comfort level and redefines the limits of autobiographical art.