Academy Award-winning director Director Kevin Macdonald (State of Play, Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void ) set out to create the world’s largest user-generated film compiled from 4,500 hours of footage sent in from 192 countries, with each selected contributor credited as a co-director. The landmark film, culled from 80,000 video submissions, is intended as a cinematic experiment to capture life around the world in a single day. Now 26 of these contributors have been invited to attend the world premiere of Life in a Day on January 27th as part of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The 26 contributors invited to attend the premiere span the globe from Egypt to the Ukraine. Their film clips capture a wide array of life experiences, including a Korean man who has been cycling the world for nine years, a young mother battling cancer, and a Russian free-runner making Moscow his playground.
The premiere will be streamed live on youtube.com/lifeinaday at 6:00PM MT, and later re-broadcast on January 28th at 7:00PM in your local time zone, subtitled in 25 different languages. Following the premiere, festival director John Cooper will moderate a global Q&A with Macdonald and the 26 filmmakers. Executive producer Ridley Scott says, “I am delighted that we’re bringing together contributors from all over the globe in such a unique way. I believe Life In A Day will inspire more people to pick up a camera and tell their stories.”
“The process of making Life In A Day has been such an inspiring one for me and my team who helped view and log all 4,500 hours of footage we received. Everyday we felt like we were seeing 20 different possible films as we got insights into so many people’s lives,” says Macdonald. “It is a testament to the skill, insight and generosity of so many contributors that we have ended up with such a powerful, cohesive and emotionally engaging film – which really gives you a flavour of what it was like to be alive on 24th July 2010.”
The contributors (either filmmakers or subjects of the submitted clip) invited to the Sundance premiere of Life In A Day are:
Contributor – Shoot location
Massoud Hossaini – Kabul, Afghanistan
Cristina Bocchialini | Ayman El Sayed Hassan – Cairo, Egypt
Soma Helmi – Bali, Indonesia
Hiroaki Aikawa | Taiji Aikawa – Tokyo, Japan
Marek Mackovic | Okhwan Yoon – Kathmandu, Nepal
Alberto Rauizo Gonzalez | Cain Abel Tapia Chavez | Aveliro Tapia – Arequipa, Peru
Renat Ardilanov | Alexander Bayturin – Moscow, Russia
Patricia Marinez del Hoyo | Toniu Xou | Virginia Salvado Segu | Araceli Segu Muste – Barcelona, Spain
Boris Grishkevich – Zakarpatska, Ukraine
Harvey Glen – Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Caryn Waechter – New York, NY – United States
Christoper Brian Heerdt – Naperville, IL – United States
David Jacques – Woonsocket, RI – United States
Betsy DelValley – Urbana, IL – United States
Bob Liginski, Jr. | Bobby Liginski III | Catherine Anne Liginsky – Grayslake, IL – United States