Life in a Day (Kevin Macdonald, 2011)

Whittled down from 4,500 hours of YouTube footage by members of the public in nearly every conceivable country, Life in a Day purports to be a snapshot of one day in the life of humanity. As an editing achievement, it's quite a feat, but is does fall short of its remit through being weighted by necessity towards the technologically-enabled and Anglocentric world, which is understandable, but also by choice towards the telegenic and soundbite-like. While there are moments of genuine revelation, the imperative to move on to show us something else quickly in the name of even-handedness also means that nothing is gone into in as much depth as it might merit. In that sense, it's a sort of whistle-stop tour of the global community, giving a sense that something has been learned and yet, on analysis, not leaving much at all of substance in the memory.

5/10