David Farnor | On 26, Jan 2021

Life in a Day 2020, Kevin MacDonald’s new documentary, will premiere on YouTube this February, and a new trailer gives us a first look at the film.

On 25th July 2020, people all over the world filmed their day and uploaded their footage to be considered for inclusion in the feature-length documentary. Directed by Kevin MacDonald (The Mauritanian, One Day in September, The Last King of Scotland), and executive produced by Ridley Scott (The Martian, Gladiator) and Kai Hsiung (Lords of Chaos), Life in a Day 2020 is composed entirely of selected contributions from those participants, and showcases just how extraordinary life can be on an ordinary day.

Ten years after the original Life In A Day, YouTube and the filmmakers asked people all over the world to record their lives to tell the story of a single day on Earth. The filmmakers received more than 300,000 submissions, nearly four times the number of submissions to the previous film, which includes thousands of hours of footage from 192 different countries, in more than 65 languages.

Among the massive number of submissions received for consideration, notable individuals featured in the uploaded footage include Covid-19 vaccine researchers in Oxford, Rohingya and Syrian refugees, Black Lives Matter protesters, a US Army veteran reflecting on his service, a woman and her challenging fertility journey, and many more personal portraits of individuals all over the world. Previous participants from the 2010 film were also included in this year’s film.

The film will premiere virtually at Sundance Film Festival on 1st February, then be released online worldwide on YouTube on 6th February. Here’s the trailer:

 

Life in a Day 2020: Kevin Macdonald and YouTube reteam for 10-year sequel

11th July 2020

In 2010, Life in a Day brought the YouTube community together for a landmark participatory feature film project that attracted 80,00 submissions. The final film premiered at Sundance in 2011, was released globally in theatres, and has been watched on YouTube over 16 million times. Now, Kevin Macdonald and YouTube are reteaming for a sequel: Life In A Day 2020.

On 25th July, the director – plus producers Ridley Scott and Kai Hsuing – is inviting anyone to pick up a camera to contribute to a YouTube Original feature-length documentary that tells the story of a single day on Earth. Selected footage sourced from participants will be woven together to tell the story of an ordinary day during these extraordinary times.

On the Saturday, people around the world are invited to film their day. The final feature film will be edited over the course of five months, crafted entirely through what is found in the submitted footage. Once the submission window closes, a 30-person team of multilingual reviewers stationed around the world will begin reviewing and translating submitted videos. Three principal feature editors – Nse Asuquo (House of My Fathers, The Jazz Ambassadors), Mdhamiri Á Nkemi (The Pale Horse, Blue Story), and Sam Rice-Edwards (Whitney) – will then undertake an enormous post-production effort, working alongside director Kevin Macdonald, to shape the film’s final narrative out of the submitted footage.

Submissions can be made from 25th July to 2nd August at lifeinaday.youtube.

Life In A Day 2020 will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and on YouTube in 2021.

Add to Watchlist