With over one hundred years of film history behind us it's inevitable that there will be a "films about films" genre to celebrate and educate on the rich history of cinema all over the world.
Earlier this year we released Mark Cousins's stunning cinema essay to childhood and the depiction of childhood experiences in cinema, A Story of Children and Film. Collected from dozens of films from all over the world Cousins's created a narrative around the different emotional experiences of childhood, illustrated with some of the most iconic films in history, from E.T to the Red Balloon, to Fanny and Alexander.
This week we announced the international acquisition of Kim Longinotto's (Pink Saris, Rough Aunties) new film Love is All, which premiered earlier this year at Sheffield Doc/Fest. Another film created entirely from other films, Longinotto's new film deals with love, in all its glorious forms: crushes, new love, LGBT love, rebellious attractions. Taken from 1200 hours of footage from the BFI archive, Love is All is set to a dreamy sountrack by legendary musician Richard Hawley.
Of course, it's not just docs that can dabble in films about film, A Useful Life tells the story of a man and his love of cinema. Released back in 2012, A Useful Life follows Jorge a film prgrammer at a small art house cinema in Uruguay, as attendances falls Jorge finds himself cast out of the cine-world he has always known and must navigate his new found "freedom".
A Story of Children and Film and A Useful Life are both available on DVD and digital download.