China’s first vertical documentary presents authentic ordinary livelihoods

China's groundbreaking vertical documentary This Is Life is set to premiere on Saturday. Over the course of a year, the film creatively weaves together 887 video clips from 509 users on Chinese short video platform Kuaishou, presenting an interconnected visual narrative around the themes of "clothing, food, shelter, transportation and home." It offers a genuine glimpse into the lives of farmers, workers, and truck drivers, showcasing the diligent and optimistic spirit of ordinary Chinese people.

After watching the documentary during a pre-screening event on Saturday, the most impressive aspect of the film is its innovative form and authentic content.

Promotional material of This is life Photo: Courtesy of Elemeet

The film's most striking feature is its bold venture into vertical storytelling, turning short videos into a feature-length film and transforming small screens into cinematic canvases. Splitting the large screen into five vertical sections, the film seamlessly switches between five screens, effectively conveying important content in single frames or collectively displaying related scenes. This innovative approach earned This Is Life the Best Innovative Documentary Award at the 10th China Academy Awards of Documentary Film.

Unlike YouTube's 2011 crowd-sourced documentary Life in a Day, which relied on submissions, This Is Life breaks away from conventional crowd-created film formats. Instead of collecting images, it dives into the vast sea of user-generated content, assembling existing real-life footage into a distinctive vertical film - a daring and avant-garde experiment for the creative team.

The film's authenticity is another standout feature, created collaboratively by a multitude of ordinary individuals, showcasing the vibrant, direct, and unpretentious self-shot footage of contemporary Chinese society. The richness in scenes and details surpass what any individual documentary director could capture, portraying the aspirations of ordinary people and revealing the interconnectedness of seemingly mundane tasks.

The resonating moments of families reuniting on Chinese New Year's Eve and the tearful farewells as individuals return to work after the Chinese New Year deeply move audiences. Notably, the film captures the journey of cotton, harvested in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, processed into thread in factories, turned into garments and embroidery by clothing workers, and eventually embraced by the younger generation in the form of Hanfu - an ancient traditional Chinese garment. This is a sequence that is both authentic and intimately connected to our daily lives.

The joy expressed through self-portraits is a manifestation of self-worth. The film, which fondly refers to its 509 "selfie directors" as "co-directors," concludes with the credits featuring each user's name, all of whom had signed copyright agreements beforehand - a genuine display of respect.

As director Chen Hong aptly put it, these user-generated content, documenting their own lives, possess a unique authenticity that goes beyond traditional documentary footage - a power worth recording for the ages. 

In a word, This Is Life stands as a testament to the extraordinary within the ordinary, capturing the essence of contemporary life through its novel approach and authentic storytelling.