"I smoke grass," was the shocking line uttered by precocious 4-year-old Sean from Ralph Arlyck's 1969 short-film documentary "Sean," which was set in a Haight Ashbury flat that housed Sean's large family and a rotating frenzy of "free-spirited" folks. Who knows whether adorable, wise-beyond-his-years Sean was telling the truth about his grass-smoking and -eating (he actually preferred eating it), but his matter-of-fact references to the police, riots, speed freaks, and shoes being "creepy," lead you to believe he probably was. Sean's candor captivated Arlyck and made for an endearing and unusual perspective, which enabled mainstream America to miss the point (as usual) and further stereotype our beloved San Francisco.

Luckily, we all get to see how well Sean turns out in Arlyck's captivating follow-up 30 years later, "Following Sean," which has been airing on PBS's POV this week. It airs one more time Sunday night at 10 p.m. on KQED World and KQED HD. See the trailer here. The original short film "Sean," is avaiable for full viewing on POV's Web site through August 31.

We watched the film the other night and were enamored with the way Arlyck weaved together Sean's family history with his own. It was very interesting to hear Arlyck's perspective on briefly living one floor below Sean's family in 1969 Haight Ashbury, where he wasn't very happy and soon moved back to the East Coast, in comparison to Y2K Haight Ashbury, which he described as "caricatures and commerce." He said it was interesting to see how all of the kids had finally gotten everything they wanted though.

See how Sean turns out after the jump!

"Following Sean" | PBS POV on KQED | Sunday, August 5 at 10 p.m. | Available on DVD, at the library, and on Netflix.