Called a “visual poem” by director Terence Davies, Of Time and the City is both ode and elegy to Liverpool, the filmmaker’s hometown. The film is perhaps an exemplar of “docudrama,” as Davies has meticulously cut together his footage to play like a narrative as he chronicles the city best known for football and The Beatles. The autobiographical film is a voice for a lost Liverpool that can never be reclaimed and by extension a lost Britain. Using stock footage, anecdotal narration and consistently snarky comments, Davies summarizes the city at the same time as lamenting it. Reminiscent of the city symphony films of the ’20s, Davies’ Liverpool is, however, on a downward spiral. Still present, too, is Davies’ continuing antagonism toward the Catholic Church, and his struggle with his own sexuality-two motifs that informed Davies’ great Liverpool Trilogy. A brilliant blend of the personal, political, and public.