Review: Life In A Day (2011)

Synopsis: Shot by filmmakers all around the world, Life In A Day aims to show future generations what it was like to be alive on July 24, 2010.

Co-directed by Kevin Macdonald, and produced by filmmaker brothers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott, Life In A Day’s concept is a relatively austere one: invite millions of people from around the world to film their lives on July 24, 2010, submitting the results to YouTube with the possibility of being included in a new documentary. The response was overwhelming, with a total of 4,500 hours of footage being collected.

The resulting documentary is a neatly pieced together, surprisingly moving peek into a day into the life of Earth’s inhabitants. Director McDonald begins at midnight, and proceeds to take us through the entire day over the course of a tidy 90 minute running time. Moving from continent to continent, individual to individual, Life In A Day wonderfully documents ordinary people going about their ordinary lives, from the humdrum aspects of human life – such as eating, talking, love and laughter – to the more challenging – death, disease, war, discrimination and brutality.

Profoundly benevolent, marvellously captivating and pleasingly authentic, Life In A Day is a worldly, important documentary that offers a brief yet wholly authentic and revealing glimpse into humanity. A triumphant achievement in contemporary cinema.

Life in a Day is currently playing at DCA Dundee.