IFC Films has released a new Boyhood featurette for writer/director Richard Linklater’s wholly unique drama.  The film was shot over a period of 12 years with the same cast, as Linklater set out to fully capture the experience of “growing up” through the eyes of a young boy named Mason (played by newcomer Ellar Coltrane).  I caught the movie at Sundance and it is, quite simply, a masterpiece.  It’s a film absolutely unlike any other, and even though this is Mason’s story, you come away feeling like it’s also your story.  In this new featurette, Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Patricia Arquette talk about the unique process of making the film and their goals when they started shooting back in 2002.  I cannot stress this enough: see this movie.

Hit the jump to watch the new Boyhood featurette.  The film opens in limited release on July 11th before expanding to more screens in the following weeks.

Here’s the official synopsis for Boyhood:

Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater’s BOYHOOD is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason’s parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, BOYHOOD charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay’s Yellow to Arcade Fire’s Deep Blue. BOYHOOD is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting. It’s impossible to watch Mason and his family without thinking about our own journey.