Free to Air 16th October

LA Plays Itself is a 3 hour long video essay about the city of Los Angeles and it’s representation on film. Video essays are now de rigueur on youtube but unheard of in 2003. You couldn’t boot leg it, you couldn’t get a hard copy, you relied on recounts from the lucky few who had seen it. For around 10 or so years I tried to get my hands on a copy and eventually gave up.

It’s fair to say at this point, not everyone is going to be excited as I to watch LA Plays Itself but I implore you too. Our narrator and director Thom Anderson gives his unapologetic opinions on every subject imaginable, from the occasionally cataclysmic abuse of LA landmarks to the benign abbreviation of Los Angeles, the city’s history, class, race and more. Stringing it all together is his love of the city.

It’s just a joy to take in the collage of films on show (the film consists almost entirely of this) and the delivery of Anderson’s lecture. Which can at times be comical, other times metaphysical but always insightful and authentic.

LA Plays Itself is free to air on Kanopy.

Bon Ap