In addition to Jerome Ragni and James Rado—the creators of Hair—as well as Warhol superstar Viva, Shirley Clarke plays herself in Varda’s vision of Hollywood and the sexual revolution. Structured as a playful film-within-a-film, Varda repeatedly punctures the cinematic illusion by discussing scenes with the actors from behind the camera and at one point appearing briefly, to show Clarke how to act out a suicide attempt. Combined with footage of Robert Kennedy’s assassination and the shooting of Andy Warhol, Lions Love is a time capsule of free love and its consequences dotted with cameo appearances by Peter Bogdanovich and Jim Morrison, among others.