A bunch of positive and negative things can happen within just one hour, one can get yet more in a single day—to say nothing about seven billion people living on the planet now. Vimeo, WWF, UN, Water.org, American Red Cross, The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and around 60 humanitarian organizations are supporting the One Day on Earth project, which is launched to showcase the life of people across the globe in 24 hours. Everyone is invited to contribute their voice to the project by sending in footage about how they and people around them live on 11.11.11. The registration is now running on the OneDayOnEarth.org website.
“Together, we are showcasing the amazing diversity, conflict, tragedy, and triumph that occur in one day. We invite you to join our international community of thousands of filmmakers, hundreds of schools, and dozens of non-profits, and contribute to this unique global mosaic. One Day on Earth is a community that not only watches, but participates,” says the official website of the project.
The One Day on Earth is very similar to YouTube’s 2010 Life in a Day initiative, which also encouraged people from all around the planet to record their day and send the footage to the production team, which turned the video extracts into a single hilarious film. The difference is that One Day on Earth, being founded in 2008, was actually launched two years earlier than Google/Hollywood project—plus, it has gained support from over 60 non-profits, making this initiative a truly humanitarian endeavour.
The footage for the first documentary based on the human experience in a day, was captured by volunteers, inspired citizens, on 10.10.10—now, the global audience can watch a trailer of the grandiose full-length movie directed by Kyle Ruddick and produced by Brandon Litman that is to be released theatrically this year (the exact date is still kept under wraps). For the film, 7,000 amateur and experienced filmmakers with phone and professional cameras (all countries are represented) contributed 3,000 hours of video, and the production team had to do a lot of work watching all of it and selecting the best moments to be included into the final work.
“Some of the standout scenes include a high-profile military parade in North Korea (captured by a Chinese tourist), views of Mecca and the Galapagos Islands, a scuba dive in the Red Sea and a 10th birthday party for a Dutch boy with a rare genetic disease and a life expectancy of 10 years,” reports New York Times.
Photo: A snaphot from OnDayOnEarth.org
In fact, the documentary is only part of the initiative (though, it’s a flagship element) since One Day on Earth website also provides people with an opportunity to get a sneak peek into the life of others through the geo-tagged video archive or donate to the initiative by sending it some money or pre-ordering the upcoming DVD of the 10.10.10 film (so far, over $60,000 has been raised). The funds will be spent on taking the initiative further—One Day on Earth has recently turned into an annual event through 2015, so the filmmakers behind the project will definitely need the money and invested in the related foundation the team of two has recently established. So, it’s not all about making money for themselves. “We don’t want to just create a film, we’re trying to create a movement,” commented Mr. Litman.