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PBS' upcoming documentary, "The Boomer Century: 1946-2046," is both a quick trip down memory lane and a glance into an iffy future.

"We didn't want to do a nostalgic look back," says Neil Steinberg, the documentary's director. "We were really trying to take an analytical and critical look at a generation, at the influence it's had and the influence it will have."

According to the filmmakers, boomers share four major traits: They are anti-authoritarian, idealistic, open to change and self-empowered. The film recounts the boomers' history, starting with the post-World War II baby boom, pointing out historical events that shaped boomers' outlook world view.

A Generation with a Personality

Steinberg got involved with the project because he had previously worked with Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., a psychologist, gerontologist and boomer himself who has studied the generation for more than three decades. Dychtwald, who hosts and executive produced the film, got investment firm Vanguard to fund it.

"What was compelling to me about this was the notion that the generation had a personality," says Steinberg. "I had never really thought about it in those terms. That doesn't mean that everyone in the generation is the same, but there is a certain sensibility that everyone in the generation shares."

"If you talk to someone of the Greatest Generation, like my father, they grew up in a time when FDR was president and government was trusted and big corporations were loyal to employees," explains Steinberg, who produced the documentary with Joel Westbrook. "With the death of JFK, Vietnam, and Nixon and Watergate, boomers grew up in a time of incredible distrust of authority."

To drive home their points, the filmmakers, which includes Academy-Award winning screenwriter Mark Harris, who penned the screenplay, not only take viewers through history, they also chat with many voices of the generation: filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner, director Oliver Stone, naturalist Dr. Andrew Weil, author Erica Jong, producer Eve Ensler, NCAA Chairman Julian Bond and many experts in their fields. They also introduce some humor, with a quick stand-up from caustic comedian Lewis Black and a funny clip featuring Billy Crystal's take on aging in "City Slickers."

NCAA Chairman Julian Bond.

A Realistic Look at What a Generation Wrought

While the filmmakers look back fondly on all the change wrought by the boomers – from the short-lived sexual revolution to conspicuous consumption – they take a realistic look about the generation's fast-arriving future. While boomers are hitting 60 with more youth and vibrancy of any generation in history, they also are living longer, saving less and potentially wreaking more havoc for those who follow them.

"It's younger people who may end up on the short of the stick, but let them deal with it like we dealt with what was put in front of us," says Bond, who is a voice of honesty throughout the documentary.

Ultimately, says Steinberg, boomers need to give back. Already, some 25 million of them volunteer. "I hope that after people watch they think about boomers in a little more critical sense. And that they give them some credit as well as some blame."

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