Life in a Day (2010)

This documentary is a sweet little time capsule of the day July 24, 2010. The creators asked YouTube users to submit a video of what their life was like on that specific day. They were also to answer a few questions, like what do you love, what are you afraid of, etc. In response, they received 4,500 hours of video from 192 countries. This movie really is a product of the times, and it's actually pretty good.

The director organized the videos chronologically, beginning with videos taken in the early morning and ending with videos taken late at night. Participants either vlogged various activities or parts on their day in response to the various questions asked. Other than the ideological progression of the questions, there is no real plot to this film. There are no main characters, no objective, no statement to prove. It's simply a day in the life of the people who participated across the world. Some of the participants are focused on more than others. A handful of people from several different countries are given more than the couple of minutes of time it would take to answer a question, and through this we get some insight into these people's lives. The majority though is a series of short clips edited together.

For those who aren't familiar with  vlogging, it's basically the act of creating an online journal via film. Some people actually do this for a living and make daily vlogs of their everyday lives, unfortunately, not very many people are good at this. When I first heard of this film I thought it would be rather slow, maybe even boring, simply because of the fact that there are really only a handful of people who are good at this, enough so to make a full-time job out of it. A majority of the people who try to do this aren't very interesting to watch or listen to. For the first five minutes of this film I thought I was right.

However, the editing and organization of the clips that went into this film were really well done. One of the things that makes this form of film so effective is that it's real. Documentaries by nature deal in non-fiction, but this is something different. As I said in the beginning of this little blurb, it's more of a time capsule than it is a film. There's a real sense of connection with the people featured here and they're just trying to preserve the state their lives were in on July 24, 2010. They aren't actors, they're not trying to prove or discredit anything, there's no story here, no story other than the story of their day- to- day, run of the mill lives. They want so much to share these events with you that you can almost feel a connection with these people. Their laughter is real, as is their pain, as are their tears, and because of that you can empathize with them more easily than you could watching a story you know is false. You can actually watch this on YouTube for free. If you choose to do so, read some of the comments other viewers have made. Many of them were really touched by the stories these people wanted to share, and for me that's one of the best indicators of the reception this movie. Yes critics and film buffs can give their perspectives on it, but this movie was made by the people of YouTube, for the people of YouTube, and if the viewers there liked it, you can be sure it was a success.

That being said, it does transcend a YouTube audience. The wonderful everyday is celebrated in this film. You can truly appreciate how wonderful life is, and how heart-wrenching it can be. The humanity is glaringly apparent, and who doesn't like a little humanity every now and again?

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

I was in a minor state of depression after reading this book. It only took me an hour to read, and for about an hour after I was lamenting having read it...but not in a this book was horrible' way, but more in appreciation of the horror.

We have all heard about those sick cases where some pedophile man abducts a young girl and has his way with her, whether it was an adult warning you as a child or a story in the news, we all know it exists, and if you heard about it in the news you know that it's more than a ghost story. This book is told from the perspective of a girl who was taken and who has had to live with her captor for 5 years while he raped, starved and abused her every day for that five years. The book isn't very graphic as to the details of these events, it's a book for teens, but the reader knows what's going on.

The telling of the story is very distant and choppy and the story sporadically alternates between the present, the past, and the girl's thoughts, which effectively allows the reader to loose track of the days as well as to get a sense of the state of mind the girl is in as she tells you her story.

I don't know if this story is based on real life events or if this character was just imagined, but by reading this I could better understand how a person could be convinced to stay in such a circumstance. Typically when confronted with a case like this you ask yourself 'Why didn't she just leave? Why would she stay in that situation and not try to escape?' and more terrifying, you think that in a similar situation you would never act the victim. But the way this story is presented allows the reader to sympathize with the girl's position, and not just take note of the suffering she's undergone. There's one part where the girl is watching a talk show with people who had undergone abuse on it. the host asks the woman why she stayed with whoever was abusing her and the audience all yells that she should have done something about it and the woman nervously concedes the point. At this the girl points out to the readers that the woman is still the broken shell of a person she was when she was being abused because she meekly gives the audience what they want (as she most likely gave in to whoever abused her) and says that yes she probably should have done something. The audience yells out to the girl because they can see that she is weak and that they are in a position of power, and would not want that power taken away so almost blame the woman for what happened to her. That part of the book is where I think the author is speaking directly to the reader, telling you to reassess your initial impressions because these people who have undergone this abuse do not think like you do while you're sitting on your couch casually passing judgements on how these people could have avoided this abuse (as if it was their fault) ... And yet, even though you are not undergoing the severity of abuse that this person has suffered, you too play with whatever power you have at the expense of others in order to ensure your own comfort. This sentiment is found throughout story.

As for the plot itself, I won't go into too much detail as you probably can guess they story before you read it.. it's a living nightmare we can only imagine. The story begins after approximately five years of this girl's captivity, though she reminisces for you every now and again so that you know how she got to be where she is. Her captor's name is Ray and he named her Alice. He had an abusive childhood himself so is sort of messed up and wants Alice to be an eternal child, therefore he starves her to keep her thin. He also sleeps with her almost every night. When this first happened in the book, I was sort of taken aback because I didn't think the story would go that way.. or at least not so suddenly, but Alice was very calm. Her recounting of the events in the story always sound sort of calm, detached almost,  because she's grown accustomed to her situation. That is not to say that she likes her situation, many times she tells us how she's tried to suffocate or drown herself or how she wishes for death. She hates where she is, but has come to know it as her reality. An odd testament to the resilience of human beings.

I've always been somewhat critical of girls who pay too much attention to their looks and to boys and such, but after reading this, that's exactly what I wanted this girl to become, or had the chance to become. A girl just like every other girl who has nothing more important to worry about than her hair or her nail polish. What she might have become if she hadn't been abducted.

This book hooked me from the first page, and thank goodness it was only 100 something pages because once you start reading it, you have to get to the ending. Overall this was a thought provoking book about the power relations you have with others. What 'power' actually is and the potential effect exerting that power over others might have. This story was like an emotional bludgeon. It will leave you wanting more while making you wish you knew less. A horrifying journey through the life and thoughts of a girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.