Last night I had the opportunity to watch National Geographic’s documentary Life In A Day and it was a great way to finish the Thanksgiving weekend. In 2010, National Geographic put out a request for individuals to film their lives on the day of July 24th 2010. As a part of this request, they received over 4500 hours of film from over 142 countries and from there created this film. The film was chronologically put together in a manner that depicted an ‘ordinary day’ in order from waking to going to bed and asked videographers to answer several simple questions including “What’s in your pocket or purse?”, “What do you love?, and “What do you fear”.
From the simple, to the daring this film was full of both little and big moments that all contained a beauty in and of themselves. Some of the most touching moments included an interview with a 14 member family who lives in a single room in a cemetery, a surprise proposal, and an interview with a man who just had extensive heart surgery. Some of the more humorous moments included an exchange of vows at a 50th anniversary in which they wrote each other’s vows. But some of the most beautiful moments didn’t contain words, they just were. They simply showed both the simplicity and complexity of a day in the life of humans and the world in which we live. Violence and sorrow were not omitted from the film, and juxtapositions comparing societies or view points were intentionally planned, which made the film all the more realistic of our true reality.
It was a truly great documentary that touched on what it is to be human in every dimension. It is interesting to see what individuals chose to film, what they felt was worth their recognition and discussion, and that of the world. When it boils down to it we all have the same blood, we all share so much, it’s just a matter of perspective and outward portrayal. We all smile, cry, wake up in the morning, eat, value individuals and things in our lives, and bleed. We all want to in some way be remembered and be more than we currently are, although being just ourselves might be all that is needed in the long run. This film did an amazing job of showing this in my opinion, but see for yourself if you are interested:
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Sounds like a great documentary-sorry I missed it-but no TV in the car and I was traveling last night!
The documentary had an angle to show that not everyone is caught up in materialism, wealth, being selfish I would imagine?
You are right, no matter what culture, religion, ethnicity, country, city, village we are part of or live in, we are all human and ‘we all bleed red’ as the saying goes……
Vikki, It’s actually available on netflix so it is probably on DVD at this point as well. Or, the video in the post is actually the full movie courtesy of NG. The angle didn’t really have a particular direction in my eyes, other than to be open and honest about human nature in both it’s flaws and glory. The final clip was form a girl who had waited all day for something amazing to happen to make her film memorable, but she explains how it doesn’t and she still fills like something great happen.