Apted's on a roll

Michael Apted, director of the famed 7-Up series, which has followed the lives of a group of Brits in seven-year increments from the time they were seven years old until middleaged, admits that his typically character- and interview-driven docs are "a bit all of one style at the moment," and has branched out with two new football films.

One is the official film of the FIFA World Cup, entitled The Grand Finale, which was recently released worldwide by Sony Home Video, and the other is The Power of the Game, which was produced by West Hollywood-based Reason Pictures. Soon to be distributed in Europe by Paris-based Pathé Films, Power is about the impact of football in different regions, including South Africa - home to the 2010 World Cup. The politics of the sport and the impact of hosting the Cup will be discussed, as well as the importance of teaching children the sport, the relationship between football and women's rights in Iran, and the racism intertwined with football in Europe.