Free Documentaries Online

To me, Life In A Day is – beyond a shadow of a doubt – the best documentary film of 2011. The fact that Life in a Day was not nominated for an Academy Award leaves me livid.

I understand why it wasn’t nominated: first, it is genre defying, mind bendingly well done.  It isn’t a traditional documentary – and that’s where the Oscars usually like to dwell.
Second, there really isn’t a solitary director and vision. The beauty of the documentary is that all the footage was shot in one day by people all over the world. Ordinary people. Real people.  The cinematography is therefore completely unedited, raw, and inspired.Because the footage is from everywhere there is no plot. This is truly ‘life in a day’ and the semblance of a plot, if there is one, would be that the footage follows a morning – midnight beat.

Lastly, the documentary was produced by YouTube and Ridley Scott. YouTube: that cesspool for copyright infringement is no friends to the Academy – as much as they use it for free advertising. And Ridley Scott – who won Best Picture for Gladiator – is perhaps too much of an action Director for the people in charge of choosing documentaries to take seriously.

But please, please, please watch this film. Watch it alone. Watch it with your loved ones: your children: your parents: your girlfriend: your boyfriend’s best friend.

This is such a human and beautiful film.

You may be interested in:

1. 

   Off the Grid: Life On The Mesa
2. 

   Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life
3. 

   Drawing from Life
4. 

   Life on Mars