For an hour and a half, I sat back and experience Life in a Day - what do you think happened on July 24th, 2010? Out of 4500 hours of footage, coming from countries all around the world, featuring people of all ages and walks of life, in all conditions of life, with all different kinds of quality of film, the editors and film makers have created something really special.
It was an exploration of humanity. It spanned from the earliest hours of the morning to the few minutes before midnight. It was amazing to see how creative people can be. The simplest aspects of their day - things they consider ordinary - become extraordinary. There was some beautiful imagery. It was filled with montages (it would have to have been - they had to be very careful with their editing and pacing), most of which start of on a light note, but become more serious. A beautiful score and a wonderful soundtrack compliment it. It's funny and heartbreaking and emotional and engages with the audience by allowing us to relate via the only thing every single person on earth can relate to - being human. Our humanity.
Certain people were focused on. The man from Korea who has been cycling around the world for over nine years, having visited 190 countries. He says he's not from North or South - just Korea. He hopes for reconciliation. "The impossible is possible". A gay man coming out to his grandmother. A couple renewing their wedding vows on their 50th anniversary. One of my favourite images was of people lighting floating lanterns and sending them up to the sky.
People were asked to say what they loved, and what they feared. It's not all light-hearted. I've said this was an exploration of humanity - we get the full range of human emotion and experiences. Love, joy, fear, birth, marriage, celebration, religion, war, anger, despair and death. It wouldn't be human if there was no death. People with cancer. People admitting to fear death. Some chilling footage of Love Parade in Germany - when there was that terrible stampede in the tunnel. People probably went along thinking they would just film the festival. A news photographer showing us his home in Afghanistan, juxtaposed with a wife in America, waiting to skype with her husband, who is fighting the war. A montage of humanity at what I felt was its most violent, wild, crazy.
I won't forget the last 'Life in a Day'. A woman who stated she waited all day for something exciting to happen, but it didn't. Nothing happened, and it often doesn't. Life isn't amazing everyday, she says. I'm not special - but she still somehow felt that today was special anyway. She probably didn't even dream of making it into this film. The feeling that this film left me with was hope. So many people in this film had such hope for the future. It's wonderful to see.
It was an exploration of humanity. It spanned from the earliest hours of the morning to the few minutes before midnight. It was amazing to see how creative people can be. The simplest aspects of their day - things they consider ordinary - become extraordinary. There was some beautiful imagery. It was filled with montages (it would have to have been - they had to be very careful with their editing and pacing), most of which start of on a light note, but become more serious. A beautiful score and a wonderful soundtrack compliment it. It's funny and heartbreaking and emotional and engages with the audience by allowing us to relate via the only thing every single person on earth can relate to - being human. Our humanity.
Certain people were focused on. The man from Korea who has been cycling around the world for over nine years, having visited 190 countries. He says he's not from North or South - just Korea. He hopes for reconciliation. "The impossible is possible". A gay man coming out to his grandmother. A couple renewing their wedding vows on their 50th anniversary. One of my favourite images was of people lighting floating lanterns and sending them up to the sky.
People were asked to say what they loved, and what they feared. It's not all light-hearted. I've said this was an exploration of humanity - we get the full range of human emotion and experiences. Love, joy, fear, birth, marriage, celebration, religion, war, anger, despair and death. It wouldn't be human if there was no death. People with cancer. People admitting to fear death. Some chilling footage of Love Parade in Germany - when there was that terrible stampede in the tunnel. People probably went along thinking they would just film the festival. A news photographer showing us his home in Afghanistan, juxtaposed with a wife in America, waiting to skype with her husband, who is fighting the war. A montage of humanity at what I felt was its most violent, wild, crazy.
I won't forget the last 'Life in a Day'. A woman who stated she waited all day for something exciting to happen, but it didn't. Nothing happened, and it often doesn't. Life isn't amazing everyday, she says. I'm not special - but she still somehow felt that today was special anyway. She probably didn't even dream of making it into this film. The feeling that this film left me with was hope. So many people in this film had such hope for the future. It's wonderful to see.