While few will have shared director Terence Davies’ childhood experience of growing up in postwar Liverpool, many will empathize with the complex feelings of nostalgia, affection, and repulsion for the place he once called home. Of Time and the City weaves together a diverse collection of found footage and quotes with Davies’ own memories into a visual poem that meditates on the darkness and innocence that lie at the heart of childhood. Essayistic in the best sense, the film earns its near unanimous critical praise by approaching the universal experience of growing up through an intense focus on an individual journey through a gritty, urban environment into adulthood. As Davies himself says, “We love the place we hate, then hate the place we love. We leave the place we love, then spend a lifetime trying to regain it.”

Presented as part of the Depth of Field 2010-2011 Series: Spaces and Places

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