posted 01-06-2011 11:42 PM                

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We’ve previously told you about a documentary from producer Ridley Scott, director Kevin Macdonald (helmer of State of Play, Touching the Void, The Last King of Scotland) titled Life in A Day. The movie is set to premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and is being billed as “the first user-generated feature-length documentary.” The film incorporates about 4,600 hours of footage submitted by YouTube users from 192 countries, 80,000 clips created on 500 cameras distributed to “remote areas of the world” on one single day — July 24th 2010.

They have announced that “Contributors whose submissions were chosen are credited as co-directors, and 26 of them have been invited to attend the world premiere of the film on Thursday, January 27, as part of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.” But more importantly, the film will be live streamed on youtube.com/lifeinaday at 6pm mt, for those of you who want to see it before the movie is released in select theaters, on demand and permanently online later in 2011. Following the premiere, Sundance festival director John Cooper will moderate a global Question & Aanswer session with Macdonald and the 26 filmmakers. The film will be re-broadcast again on January 28th at 7pm in your local time zone, and subtitled in 25 languages.

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. 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.”

They are calling the movie a “historic global experiment to create the world’s largest user-generated feature film: a documentary, shot in a single day, by you.” Macdonald says the project “a time capsule that will tell future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010. It is a unique experiment in social filmmaking, and what better way to gather a limitless array of footage than to engage the world’s online community.”

“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.”

It certainly sounds like an interesting experiment, and while I’m sure some footage captured on July 24th might be amazing, I can’t imagine the doc as a whole will be that interesting. I mean, what kind of narrative can you put together with hundreds or thousands of collaborators from around the world who are shooting independently?

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

Life in a Day Teaser #1: Slim Up

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