Review of 'Life in a Day'

When I first saw the concept for 'Life in a Day', and the ever so slightly patronising 'call to action' video featuring 'Life In a Day' exec-producer Ridley Scott requesting users to get out there on July 24, 2010 and film a day their lives - I was initially underwhelmed by the concept. The brief seemed little more than a marketing gimmick on the part of Ridley Scott and his crew, especially since it was so open. All applicants simply had to do was make a film that answered the following questions: 

- What do you fear/love?
- What makes you laugh?
- What's in my pockets?

The next I heard of the project was literally hours before it was due to be live streamed over YouTube on January 27, 2011 at 8PM ET - which for me was January 28, 0100 GMT. Looking at the statistics - the final source material made from 4,500 hours of video from 80,000 videos, submitted by people from 197 countries, all shot on July 24, 2010 - it soon became a compelling enough reason to at least watch part of the final result, which is a 90-minute feature film edited by Kevin Macdonald by December 2010 (Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void). Frustratingly I can't find figures on how many people where online at the same time as me, although if the 38 million+ channel views is anything to go by, it would be safe to assume at least a couple of million where online to witness this historic cinematic event.

In some ways the experience of watching the online premiere of a film made entirely from crowd-sourced footage, gave the final film a unique resonance. Knowing how little the mini-narratives have been interfered with, as well as the fact that all the footage was from the same day, made even the most banal segments feel more immediate and poignant than any social-realistic documentary I have seen.

As a whole, the film is essentially a montage of footage that attempts to visually answer the three questions in the brief, by following the makers or their friends/spouses going about their lives. The structure of the montage is linear, so follows the passing of time over a day for each of the people shown. At various points, Macdonald blends the clips into intercut sequences, whilst throughout most of the film he explores various existential themes through the juxtaposition of relevant footage. There many stages where I was concerned the film would try to avoid tougher themes such as politics, death and violence, but then I was pleasantly surprised at how these areas were addressed. It seemed too tempting for the filmmakers to go with the 'life is good' approach, that would seem to be presenting a politically correct and controversy-free version of reality. Although 'Life in a Day' takes a positive essentialist view on life, the inclusion of negative themes is neither heavy-handed or subversively propagandist - which is something filmmakers too often resort to.

I was conscious of one aspect of the final project, which was the authorship behind the final edit itself. Whilst I didn't feel there was anything particularly 'American' about the film, I was distinctly aware of the problem of having a film where the footage is supplied from contributors around the world, but the producing team are primarily westerners. I feel that this therefore complicates the concept of a film that objectively curates the observations of people from divergent nationalities and cultures. Although there weren't any segments that stuck out as being included purely for exotic value, I wondered if there would be criticism leveled against the makers for representing certain cultures with a markedly western ideological/philosophical manner.

If such criticism is due though, I feel 'Life in a Day' was successful in not seeming to perpetuate one specific ideological standpoint, but rather it maintains an authorial distance that allows each clip to have a voice of its own. Something that's easy to take foregranted, but in terms of execution, arguably demonstrates a great skill in documentary storytelling. Primarily this skill is evident in the way that I could not switch it off, although I was so tired from long hours writing an essay, and additionally, in the way it engaged me emotionally - there are some genuinely heart-breaking as well as uplifting moments. Well worth buying for those confused by the mixed reviews.

References:

YouTube (2011) Life in a Day. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/user/lifeinaday. (Accessed 27 January 2011)
Life in a Day (2011) Directed by K. Macdonald. United States: Scott Free Productions.