83-year-old documentary filmmaker Ralph Arlyck got his career started back in 1970 with a short documentary he made titled ‘Sean’ that got premiered in France alongside legendary filmmaker François Truffaut’s ‘The Lost Child’. More than 50 years later, now in his 80s, Arlyck makes a documentary of him contemplating his past, his present, and his eventual end, ‘I Like It Here’, his first film in 18 years.
The film had its premiere at the 2022 Montclair Film Festival, following a festival run that includes Palm Springs International Film Festival and Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Release Date
Directed by Ralph Arlyck, ‘I Like It Here’ opens in New York’s Firehouse: DCTV cinema on August 23, 2024 with additional cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston following in the Fall.
Synopsis
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 neighborhood and his own past, taking stock of where he’s been and where he’s going.
As Arlyck catches up with friends and neighbors in his verdant corner of upstate New York, he contemplates not just the physical and mental tolls of aging, 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, that is every inch about the pleasure of being alive.
“As the title suggests, I like it here, which suggests je suis bien. Why spend your time wondering of other lives that you could have lived? I don’t find it very useful. No, I would say no regrets.” comments Arlyck on the theme of the film.
Reviews
John Fink in a The Film Stage review praised the documentary, writing “Striking a sweet, often humous tone, Arlyck navigates aging gracefully with a keen awareness of how parent-child relationships morph as time proceeds. With a simple and direct approach narrated by Arlyck––who early on asks “so what?” as the film makes sense of the loose threads that equal a life––I Like It Here is a beautiful meditation on mortality.”
Melita Zajc in a Modern Times Review also praised the film, writing “It is hard to imagine the precise balance of engagement and neutrality that Arlyck created in this film. Actually, it is balanced in almost everything. It is about the reality we all must eventually face, yet the focus is on how he reckons with it. He is meditative about it but not bitter or sad. And yet, there is an emotion that prevails – the desire to stay.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for ‘I Like It Here’.