I Like It Here – Watch the trailer for the new documentary from Ralph Arlyck

Greenwich Entertainment has released the US theatrical release of I Like It Here, a documentary film by Ralph Arlyck (Following Sean).

People talk or laugh about aging, its irritations and relentless progression, but rarely confront the reality of dying or being left alone. Nor do they consider the lightness and calmness that can come when the race seems not so crucial. I LIKE IT HERE is about all those things and, finally, about the pleasures of being alive. A leading figure of American independent documentary film, Ralph Arlyck conveys how it feels to look back on your own life, to contemplate your place in an ever-changing world, and what to make of the time that remains.

Winner of the International Critics Prize at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, and official selection at Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, True/Falls, San Francisco and New York Jewish festivals and numerous other international film festivals, I LIKE IT HERE will open at the Firehouse: DCTV in New York on August 23. Additional cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, will follow in the Fall.

American documentary filmmaker Ralph Arlyck has spent a lifetime filming the people he’s close to and the things he sees. Now, as he approaches 80 while making the film, he wanders through his neighbourhood and his own past, taking stock of where he’s been and where he’s going.

As Arlyck catches up with friends and neighbours in his verdant corner of upstate New York, he contemplates not just the physical and mental tolls of ageing, but the very substance of living well, of connecting with people, of appreciating life’s simple joys.

With great warmth and wit, Arlyck pulls together decades of footage into this eloquent personal essay about entering the last lap, which is every inch about the pleasure of being alive.

Ralph Arlyck has been making acclaimed and award-winning movies since the mid-60s, when he was a graduate student at San Francisco State. His 14-minute short, Sean, about a 4-year-old neighbour in Haight Ashbury, played in festivals worldwide, and his 2004 follow-up feature, Following Sean, was released theatrically to critical acclaim.

In all his films, Arlyck’s quiet, droll voice feels like it’s whispering in the viewer’s ear. In I LIKE IT HERE, he speaks to us as he contemplates the end.

Check out the official site.