We Like Films!
Why do we like films? It's a question that we cinephiles — or film buffs, whatever you want to call us — get asked often. While there’s an infinite amount of answers, one thing is for certain: we believe that cinema is more than just pictures on a big screen. It's an experience, an art form, and a language for all of us.
This month, we’re showcasing the cinematic art form in We Like Films!: Films We Like's Films About Films. From documentaries about famed auteurs, important slices of history from the Classical Hollywood era, meditations about the meaning of cinema, and narrative films about film lovers, these films are invested in the celebration of the art of cinema, just like we are.
THE HISTORY
Films that tell the story of cinema.
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (2018)
SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD is the untold story of Scotty Bowers, an ex-Marine who landed in Hollywood after World War II and became the confidante, lover and sexual aide to Hollywood stars, including closeted gay male celebrities.
Becoming Bond (2017)
BECOMING BOND examines the life of George Lazenby, the one-time actor who played James Bond for the first and last time in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story (2015)
When a storyboard artist meets a film researcher… HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY dives into the love between Harold and Lillian, Hollywood’s best kept secret in the 1940’s.
THE AUTEURS
Cinema couldn’t be possible without the artists. These following films focus on seminal figures in cinema history.
Altman (2014)
ALTMAN is an affectionate portrait of the life and work of Robert Altman, director of New Hollywood films such as McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), The Long Goodbye (1973), and Nashville (1975), known for his naturalistic style and light satire.
Varda by Agnès (2019)
Agnès Varda’s last film, VARDA BY AGNÈS, is a playful, quirky, and undeniably idiosyncratic look at her own life, art and six-decade-long career. An early feminist filmmaker who started her career in the male-dominated, male-dominant genre of 1950’s French New Wave, Varda’s filmmaking is always about people, especially marginalized people, and their stories.
Brakhage (1998)
BRAKHAGE is an intimate documentary that profiles the work and process of Stan Brakhage, an important figurehead in the avant-garde and experimental film movement. Brakhage explored cinema materiality and pushed the limits of the definition of cinema, and his influence extends even today to film style.
Barbara Rubin & the Exploding NY Underground (2018)
Barbara Rubin made her directorial mark in her experimental, underground film, Christmas on Earth (1963), a radically liberating celebration of sex and sexuality. Her debut film spotlit the underground New York community, leading artists like Andy Warhol and bands like The Velvet Underground out from obscurity and into the limelight.
THE PROCESS
These films celebrate the beauty of how movies are made.
Los Angeles Plays Itself
LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF is Thom Anderson’s video essay about the most prolific actor in film history — the city of Los Angeles, and the various ways that its representation has impacted the city, and vice versa.
Cameraperson (2016)
Always present, never shown — cinematographer Kristen Johnson compiles her decades’ worth of work, both personal and historical, into CAMERAPERSON, in a thoughtful investigation of the ways a camera interacts with the world and its subjects.
Casting By (2012)
Casting directors are an oft-overlooked, yet incredibly significant, part of film and filmmaking. CASTING BY focuses primarily on casting agent Marion Dougherty in the era of New Hollywood, whose eye for talent allowed for a revolutionary shift in the way that actors were cast in their roles.
THE CINEPHILES
We like films… and so do these people!
Kumiko: The Treasure Hunter (2014)
KUMIKO: THE TREASURE HUNTER is a somber drama film, inspired by the urban legend of Takako Konishi, a woman who had mistakenly been reported to have believed that the film Fargo (1996) was a documentary and who went to the titular town in search of the treasure that Steve Buscemi’s character, Carl Showalter, had buried.
How to Build a Time Machine (2016)
In this moving documentary HOW TO BUILD A TIME MACHINE, two men are individually motivated to build a time machine, one real and one prop, inspired respectively by H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel The Time Machine and the 1968 film adaptation with the same name.
Rhinoceros EyeS (2003)
A horror film, RHINOCEROS EYES focuses on the macabre descent of Chep, a reclusive young man who falls in love with a prop designer whose obsession with detail necessitates that all of her movie props must be the “real thing.”
Find out where to watch all of these titles and more in our #WeLikeFilms Collection.
FWL’s #WELIKEFILMS COLLECTION
About Films We Like
Founded by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann (Grass, Comic Book Confidential, Carmine Street Guitars) Films We Like is a boutique distributor of documentary, independent, and international films in Canada. Recent releases include Drive My Car, The Jump, and Wife of a Spy.