Lift Documentary Review And Interpretation

Lift Synopsis

Lift is a short documentary about a dilapidated apartment block in rural London. It is filmed by Marc Isaacs who sits himself in one of the buildings lifts with his camera and films the people who use the lift. As the documentary continues the people who use the lift start to become more accustomed to Marc being there and begin talking when he asks them questions about their life.

Lift Review

Lift is a very interesting documentary in that it does follow many conventions of a regular documentary production. It doesn’t cut away to re-enactments that show the subject being described by the residents, it just shows them in the lift describing it instead. It doesn’t end with a message about history or people, only a shot of the apartment block in the winter to round out the show. I think it does a fantastic job of showing the real world in real time, rather than some documentaries that will use pre-recorded pre-rehearsed footage to make a point. When a resident enters the lift and says hi to Marc you know that what they talk about on the journey is real, there aren’t any sneaky cuts to get rid of bad lines or bad jokes, all of it is real. I think it does a better job of documenting the real world over some million dollar budgeted documentaries. The point of the show is sort of hidden behind a low budget look, it never really explicitly says what the point of it is, but you can gather that it has to do with simply documenting the real people in the real world, right at the heart of their lives, their homes. This allow the documentary to reach deep into the mind of the viewer and shows them what it’s like to be in that situation. This is especially exemplified by the fact that the whole time the camera is in the position of Marc’s eyes, making the entire documentary a POV film. This allows the viewer to feel like it is them asking the questions and being conversed with, which isn’t something that often happens in documentaries. I feel like this could potentially be an amazing direction for documentaries to take, placing the viewer at the heart of the facts rather than leaving them in their own homes watching from afar.

Documentary Style

I believe that this documentary was an observational/participatory documentary. It shows the world around the film maker, but it also features the film maker in it, even if it is only his voice occasionally being heard. This shows that the film maker is actually a living aspect of the world there are documenting, rather than just being there to get the facts across. It is also, in some ways, a poetic documentary. It shows the sort of poetic experience of living in that very tower block in London, and what each person in the block thinks and feels every day. Its ultimate goal I to create an idea or feeling in the viewer rather than trying to simply show the facts.