It's the summer, and we can think of no better way to celebrate than going on vacation.
That's why this month, Films We Like is going #OnTheRoad: highlighting films in transit, films that travel and move with us, and films about the very act of going from one place to another. It's time for us to hit the road!
ON THE ROAD
Hit the Road (2021)
Where are we?
Starting off our ON THE ROAD collection is the newest addition to our VOD catalogue: HIT THE ROAD, the stunning debut feature by Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi's son, Panah Panahi. The road in question takes us to the wide space of a desert, the tried-but-true family road trip, and the whole comedy of errors that comes along with travelling with your family to an unknown place. Far from complacent, however, HIT THE ROAD is urgent. It's an "irrepressible defiance" -- a road that we definitely want you to take.
Go Further (2003)
What do you get when a raw food chef, a hemp activist, a yoga teacher and iconic '60s author Ken Kesey travel down the Pacific Coast Highway in a bio-fueled bus? A larger-than-life documentary that celebrates and encapsulates the very ethos of being on the road. GO FURTHER, directed by Ron Mann, explores the idea that the single individual is the key to large-scale transformational change.
Midnight Family (2019)
Being on the road does not necessitate going from point A to point B. At times, it is being on the road when people need it the most: in a high-speed ambulance ride with private paramedics. With striking vérité camerawork, MIDNIGHT FAMILY drops us directly into the frenetic nighttime emergency ecosystem of Mexico City. We meet the Ochoas, a ragtag family of private paramedics, who try desperately every day to be the first responders to critically injured patients. It's a real-life answer to fiction movies like "Taxi Driver," "Bringing Out the Dead," "Collateral," "Nightcrawler" and "The Sweet Smell of Success."
Transit (2019)
“Ports are places where stories are told,” a character says in Christian Petzold’s masterful TRANSIT. A Nazi-era short story updated to the politically fraught 2019, TRANSIT explores the tense, anxious terror of being stuck in limbo -- or "transit" -- in between identities, citizenships, national borders, and the past and the future. The migration in TRANSIT is not a physical one, but nonetheless, it explores the emotional themes of being stranded, as if on the road.
Roadkill (1989)
Bruce McDonald's ultra-Canadian 1989 film ROADKILL takes the road all around North Ontario to find and chase after the star band of a fictionalized Toronto record label. The chaser is Ramona, record label intern, and the chased is Children of Paradise: a temperamental rock band on the verge of a messy breakdown. The gritty, rock-n-roll soundtrack makes this the perfect, crazy Canuck road movie.
Întregalde (2021)
INTREGALDE, a Romanian thriller by the incisive Radu Muntean, follows a group of teens who go on a humanitarian trip, driving on quiet mountain roads to the village of the titular Întregalde. Part satire, part observational, and part thriller, INTREGALDE tests the limits of generosity, humanitarianism and altruism, all with the mossy backdrop of the remote Transylvanian village.
LittleRock (2011)
Let's find the American Dream. No, really. LITTLEROCK does: a Japanese brother and sister duo, Atsuko and Rintaro, who speak no English at all, are headed to San Francisco but become stranded in the Southern California town of Little Rock. LITTLEROCK explores the quotidien, aimlessness of being on the road, from the language barrier to the subtle shifts in self-identity that happen along the way of a really interesting vacation. LITTLEROCK tells a confident story that knows precisely where it's going. This is how Atsuko and Rintaro spend their summer vacation.
Oslo, August 31 (2011)
We end our ON THE ROAD collection with a film that is not on the road, but reflects on the road not taken: OSLO, AUGUST 31, a tender, sympathetic and heartfelt film about being adrift, of a life not lived. A day, a city and a 34-year-old man named Anders, who is on release from a drug rehab center so he can go to a job interview, fill out the corners of this Joachim Trier film. So much and so little happens, but it makes the viewer ask the question that we hear so often on a vacation...
Where are you headed?
FWL’s #OnTheRoad Collection
Find out where to watch all of these titles in our #OnTheRoad 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 Anonymous Club, Hit the Road and the Academy Award winning film Drive My Car by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.