Film
Life in a Day
Kevin Macdonald and Ridley Scott stitched thousands of YouTube submissions from July 24, 2010 into a single feature — birth, death, boredom, love, war, all cut together without narration. It's less a film than a mosaic: no plot, no stars, just strangers' ordinary footage arranged into something oddly moving. Best watched patiently, for anyone curious what humanity looks like when it films itself unprompted.
If you liked this
Baraka1992
No dialogue, no narration, just breathtaking footage from two dozen countries cut into a wordless meditation on ritual, landscape and labour. It shares Life in a Day's faith that images alone can carry meaning.
But Zero narrative hooks — if you need a story or characters, this will feel like an art installation, not a film.
Samsara2011
The same director's spiritual sequel to Baraka, shot over five years across 25 countries. Gorgeous, unsettling, and built on the same trust that juxtaposition alone can say something profound.
But Slow and hypnotic by design — it rewards a big screen and full attention, not background viewing.
Human2015no page yet
Two thousand interviews from 60 countries, people answering the same handful of huge questions about love, war, and death. Where Life in a Day shows, this one asks — and lets people speak for themselves.
But Nearly three hours long and emotionally relentless; it's a lot to sit with in one go.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Man with a Movie Camera1929
It's the direct ancestor of the crowdsourced-day-in-life idea: ordinary footage from ordinary people, edited into art, decades before anyone had a camera phone.
Dziga Vertov's silent Soviet masterpiece assembles ordinary daily footage from across a city into a dazzling, self-aware portrait of life being filmed — the technique Life in a Day inherited, eight decades early.
But Silent, black-and-white, and aggressively experimental — this asks patience most modern viewers aren't used to giving.
More like this (7)
Sweet Home Alabama2002
Aerial footage of the entire planet, narrated as a warning about what we're doing to it. A more directed, message-driven cousin to Life in a Day's global sweep.
But The narration is didactic where Life in a Day trusts you to draw your own conclusions.
Koyaanisqatsi1983
The granddaddy of wordless montage documentary — cities, nature, and machines set to a hypnotic Philip Glass score. If you liked Life in a Day's rhythm without words, this is where that idea started.
But No talking heads, no plot, and a very particular late-70s art-cinema pace that some find punishing.
Chronicle of a Summer1961no page yet
French pioneers of cinema verité wander Paris asking strangers if they're happy. It's the ancestor of every crowd-voice documentary since, Life in a Day included.
But Dated in style and self-conscious about its own filmmaking process in a way modern viewers might find fussy.
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch2018no page yet
Sweeping, painterly shots of humanity's physical reshaping of the earth — mines, dumps, farms — with the same faith that scale and image can replace narration.
But Bleaker and more pointed than Life in a Day; there's an argument being made, not just a portrait.
Manufactured Landscapes2006no page yet
A quieter, more focused cousin — photographer Edward Burtynsky's images of industrial scale, turned into documentary. Global in ambition, intimate in method.
But Narrower subject matter than Life in a Day's total-humanity sprawl; this is about industry, not everything.
Magnolia1999
It takes Life in a Day's central shape — countless separate lives converging within a single day — and runs it through fiction, showing what the same structure does when a screenwriter controls the coincidences.
A sprawling ensemble drama where strangers' lives collide across one extraordinary Los Angeles day. Same structure as Life in a Day — many people, one span of time — but scripted, and it hits like a freight train.
But Melodramatic, three hours long, and prone to big emotional swings that Life in a Day's real-footage restraint never attempts.
24 Hours in A&E2011
Same real-footage, no-script philosophy, but the format tightens the lens from an entire planet to a single room, proving the idea works at any scale.
Fixed cameras in one British hospital, capturing whoever walks through the door on a given shift. It's Life in a Day's global scope shrunk to one building, with the same trust that unscripted footage will find its own drama.
But Far more intense and specific — this is grief, trauma and crisis close up, not a gentle mosaic of everyday moments.
People
Cast
- Cindy BaerHerself
- MoicaHerself
Caryn WaechterHerself- Drake ShannonHimself
Directing
- Jon HaasDirector
- Kevin MacdonaldDirector
- Kjell BismeyerDirector
- Phil LoarieDirector
- Zillah BowesDirector
Production
- Jack ArbuthnottCo-Producer
- Kaydee DangCo-Producer
- Tim PartridgeCo-Producer
- Ridley ScottExecutive Producer
- Tony ScottExecutive Producer
- Ann LynchLine Producer
- Liza MarshallProducer