I Like it Here

Ralph Arlyck, a figurehead of American independent documentary, contemplates aging, mortality, and finding contentment in the present while looking back on his life and career.

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. USA, 2023, 88 minutes.

Stay for a discussion with the filmmaker, Ralph Arlyck, after the screening.

Community Partner: Congregation Sons of Israel, Program on Aging: Living and Dying Well.

“I Like It Here is part memoir, part personal essay on aging and mortality, part portrait of his community and home in the Hudson Valley. There’s no plot, per se. But I’ve seen the movie twice, and both times I found myself moved near tears… He’s doing precisely what great memoirists do: invite us into their stories as a way of making space for us to reflect on our own.” – The New York Times

“Striking a sweet, almost humerous tone, Arlyck navigates aging gracefully with a keen awareness of how parent-child relationships morph as time proceedes. 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.” – Film Stage.

“In Ralph Arlyck’s I Like It Here – his first film in 18 years – the U.S. documentary filmmaker reflects on his life while spending time with neighbors, friends, colleagues, children and grandchildren, and at the same time making peace with the physical and emotional obstacles of growing old, and pondering on the serenity and fulfilment that come with entering one’s final years.” – Variety

“An American documentarian for more than 50 years, Ralph Arlyck, at age 82, has created one of his most personal films. A clear-eyed meditation on the reality and surprising beauties of aging, I Like It Here finds the filmmaker reflecting on his life with discursive wit and composure while spending time with friends and lovers, neighbors and colleagues, children and grandchildren.” – The Film Society of Lincoln Center

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR, RALPH ARLYCK

Director/Producer Ralph Arlyck’s film work includes Current Events, which was selected as Best Documentary at the Atlanta Film Festival and aired on PBS and the BBC; An Acquired Taste, regarded as a classic of the personal-essay genre; and the much-acclaimed Godzilla Meets Mona Lisa, a whimsical tour of Paris’ Pompidou Center. His films have screened at Sundance, the New York and London Film Festivals, the Prix Italia and other gatherings. Arlyck has been a prominent advocate for American independent producers, twice testifying before Congress and once before the Carnegie Commission on the importance of independent filmmakers to public television’s mission. He writes on production issues for several media journals. A former member of the board of INPUT, the international public television showcase, Arlyck is a long-standing participant in the distribution cooperative New Day Films.

Arlyck received a bachelor’s degree in English from Colgate University and a master of science from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in Poughkeepsie, New York, with his wife, Elisabeth, who teaches at Vassar College. He has taught film production at Vassar, the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo and SUNY Purchase. He grew up in Suffern, New York.