Quick Review: Life in a Day

The BBC recently aired a feature-length documentary entitled Life in a Day.

It intersperses various videos shot by people across the planet on the 24th July 2010. As the website states, 4500 hours of content was submitted from 192 countries. The result is an astonishing cross-section of life on this planet.

I missed the beginning of the documentary so I have no idea how it is initially framed. However, what most appealed to me was the lack of narrative. There are a few framing devices placed within the piece yet these are light and hardly give the film any real sense of progression. As such, it sits as a nice insight into life around the world without any real political statement.

Unfortunately, the documentary does not live up to this throughout. Most notably are the scenes shot in Afghanistan by a soldier, resident and the girlfriend of a soldier in the U.S.. These scenes are placed after each other and obviously speak about the ongoing war. That said, this only highlights a common connection rather than taking a specific stance on the common connection. It really is a film wrought by the individuals that filmed it: the editor has quite successfully hidden himself.

It's a remarkable piece and well worth watching.

-The English Student

Human Documentaries

I have finally begun to watch the famous BBC documentary Planet Earth.

I know that I am way behind the trend on this yet I always find that I end up watching television shows long after they have finished. Perhaps I am just allowing the cream of television to rise and perhaps I am just lazy. Regardless, friends have begun touting this amazing documentary and I have finally gotten into it. Clearly it is brilliant. Yet I am not entirely sure what the real focus of the documentary is.

There have been several occasions during the show when I have flinched at the use of over anthropomorphic allusions. There are some overt comparisons between some of the animals and humans and the tone of the episodes frequently changes to set up an idea of 'good animal' and 'bad animal'. Are the arctic wolves the evil foil to the good musk oxen? I think not, yet the damning music and chase scenes imply otherwise.

The show is obviously attempting to create a human connection to these animals without diminishing their idiosyncratic, animalistic nature. It seems that one of the only ways out of this conundrum is an appeal to balance. While this appeal is not made too directly, the episodes seem to imply that nature is balanced and that the death of an animal helps the life of another. As other television shows like All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace have demonstrated however, this sense of balance is a human conception based on systems and network theories.

Planet Earth is magnificent. Yet it is quite obviously more about the rhetoric humanity uses to describe the environment.

-The English Student

Social Grotesque I

Sometimes you just have to be disgusted at our grotesque society.

The recent buzz around the Copenhagen conference on global warming touted this as the time that environmental problems will be solved. Or at least, a coherent and importantly, fair method of approaching a situation would be outlined. Of course, thus far this has been a massive failure and a farce. Should the most influential world leaders have their way developing nations will take more of the burden relative to their carbon output. They will pay more for a world wide problem that they had a smaller hand in causing.

Along with this conference has been an increasingly obvious dialogue related to population sizes. A documentary featuring David Attenborough highlighted the issue very succinctly by highlighting that we currently need one and a half planet earths to maintain the consumption of our increasing world population. Is not this ridiculously over-use of natural resources disgustingly grotesque? Surely we have to directly address this problem of over population as it is becoming a very practical issue.

However, answers to this grotesque problem have been even more grotesque. The previously mentioned documentary discussed the policies of many past governments in their efforts to keep their population down. These range from a limit on the number of children legally allowed by the government, to the forced vivisection of males across the country. Every solution to this problem is naturally sickening. If we cannot find an answer to this problem that is not as vile as its origins then we need to look elsewhere.

Copenhagen is failing because we have not recognised the grotesque society we have created. It is borne out in the environmental problems we face, the solutions we have proposed and the manner in which our world leaders are dealing with it.

-The English Student

The Brilliance of Top Gear

I have never seen cars to be anything more than tools for getting from one place to another. But BBCs' Top Gear is doing a good job of making me care.

While I had been learning to drive for a short period over the last year, it was not long before I took a break from my lessons. I felt that there was no real reason for me to get a license at this time as the public transport system in my area was adequete. Of course, coupled with this was my intense fear of the dangers inherent in driving.

As Top Gear goes into its' eleventh series, I have been wondering why it is I enjoy the show so much and yet still despise cars. The wit and banter of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May all contribute to my enjoyment of this BBC classic, but their personalities are not strong enough to defeat my natural aversion to their subject matter. The answer, I believe, lies in more subtle aspects of the show.

Often during Top Gear, a pre-recorded clip will be played wherein a car will be reviewed or a challenge will be addressed. The director of these shorts is an absolute genius. A huge variety of camera shots that include amazingly fresh angles are consistently used. In addition to this, very appropriate music from excellent musicians is used to great effect. This combination of visuals and audio are used in perfect symphony with each other and it is for this reason that I find great pleasure in the program.

The BBC would do well to make great use of talents such as the crew on Top Gear. "And with that bombshell", it is time for me to sign off for another week!

-The English Student