Shot over a five-year period beginning in 1971-when Nixon was in the White House and feminism was in our houses-Diaries captures the filmmaker, his wife, children and friends as they attempt to forge a life out of the newly politicized nature of relationships. Ed and his wife Jane, Ed and his lovers, Jane and her lovers, the brief breakup, the reconciliation; Ed the manipulator, Jane the resilient ("I'm sorry I'm such an asshole." "Why don't you try to change?" "I'm not that sorry."); Ed the intrusive: it is all captured in "slice of life" aided by a then-new, totally portable, one-person synchronous-sound camera. "I thought," says Pincus, "that if you could make a film over (a long) time period a new notion of film character would emerge. So I set out in 1971 to make a five-year film, filming those closest to me with the hope that we would not only get portraits of these people but also a portrait of a generation." Diaries is that, and more. "...a great mirror of the times, worthy of being put into a time capsule. It's witty, sprawling, epic, lots of fun, and filled with New Age yackety-yak, as the New Left finds that the personal is political. The film could be called Cambridge as much as Altman called his testimonial Nashville and Woody Allen called his Manhattan. Not to be missed." (Real Paper) "Pincus' subjective camera is also very objective: it gets at the truth because it approaches the world with feeling...We're looking through Ed's eyes at the people he loves most, and they're looking through the camera to a man they care about deeply and the whole crowd meets inside Ed's head in a heavy but thoroughly exhilarating group marriage... (Kathy Huffines, The Cambridge Express)