Life in a Day 2020

Movie night with Gertie.

"Life in a Day" seemed groundbreaking ten years ago, but now we live in a TikTok era less so. So there's nothing groundbreaking here even thopiugh it's Covid and Black Lives Matter time, but it is entertaining and heartwarming.

A very nice and beautiful documentary about life, specifically on the day of July 25th 2020. It covers topics like covid, the BLM protests, pollution, life, death, love, work, meaning and so much more. This docu also did a wonderful job showing all walks of life, cultures, struggles, people with unique hobbies and more in a way that never felt forced or remodeled for the purpose of the documentary, it all felt pure.

I think my only complaint would be that I felt like it jumped around a lot and has no real transitions, but it all fit together nicely and compacted well in its hour and 20 minute run time.

I remember an old show called "Ben Casey" that began with the lead in, "Birth, Life, Death, Infinity." This is the task of this documentary which has had mixed reviews. The original was done in 2010 and this was a follow up. It must have been a monumental task. While there are some pretty gripping scenes, the editing was all over the place. Transitions were unclear and sometimes it was hard to see where things were going. Maybe a little voice over using poetry or some literary pieces would have helped. I suppose since so many cultures were engaged, that might be unfair. I stayed with it, but I never had the aha moment. Certainly worth a look.

Following on from Life in a Day from 2010, we're now back again with an update, the 2020 version. Directed by Kevin McDonald again and executive produced by Ridley Scott (who I'm sure did sod all). It's essentially the same idea repeated. People film stuff themselves (324,000 videos we're told at the start), all shot on 25th July 2020, uploaded to YouTube and Kevin sticks it all together in some meaningful way. I can't remember a damn thing about the last one and ask me about this in 10 years... or maybe next month and I'll have forgotten. It's not that it's crap. There's some exquisite content here and it's interesting while you're watching it. But with no context given to the material, it's mere forgettable wallpaper. Some of it very nice wallpaper, shot beautifully in 4K, or underwater or a in staggering amount of drone shots. It does it's best with a dramatic start, a montage of women in labour and sunrises as cities wake up. Cows are milked, roosters crow, the world prepares for the day. It's fun, frivolous, a bit quirky. Most of the clips are cut too tight to truly enjoy, but there are some sequences left to breathe a little easier. In general the tone is kept light, hopeful, everyone sharing their best selves, with even the sadder moments kept brief. We get proposals and weddings, lots of masks and social distancing of course. Shot in 2020 this is inevitable and in a way that makes it a little more interesting as a document. We've had the births and marriages, Covid covers the death quota and it gets a lot of screen time, but all the big events of the year are here, the BLM marches and trouble in America does in many ways appear to carry the most weight. Ultimately it's a love letter to life, to humanity. I'm not sure it's really much of a success in summing us up or summing up one day in July, but it's pohsitive and that should probably be celebrated.

The second installment of 'Life in a Day' movie, first filmed in 2010, makes a 10 years leap and catches the world once again in its lenses, this time in the special conditions of the covid pandemic.

It's interesting to see how people thought this could unfold, how others are now after 10 years since the last movie and that the major concerns and joys of people around the world haven't changed.