We’re counting down the top documentary news of 2011 on New Year’s Eve!
Life in a Day, which may be the largest crowdsourced work of art ever undertaken, premiered first at Sundance then online on YouTube in July. Filmmakers Kevin Macdonald and Ridley Scott oversaw the effort to sift through 4,500 hours of video chronicling a single day — July 24, 2010 — contributed by 80,000 filmmakers from around the world.
Other documentary projects have crowdsourced footage before, but none on this level. The complete film, which is free to watch online (and is above too!), has been viewed more than 3 million times.
The 2011 Documentary Year in Review Countdown…
#12: Online payments
Ford Foundation Funds Webified Documentaries
#11: Off-camera confrontation
Michael Moore Sues the Weinsteins over ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ Accounting
#10: A film by you
‘Life In A Day,’ a Documentary Culled from 80,000 Filmmakers, Premieres Online
#9: Cameraless documentary
‘Senna’ Breaks U.K. Box-Office Records
#8: Mobile device legend
Cinéma Vérité Pioneer Richard “Ricky” Leacock Dies
#7: Good karma
‘My Reincarnation’ Breaks Records on Kickstarter
#6: Seeing is beliebing
3-D Documentaries Hit Theaters
#5: Risks become real
War Documentarian Tim Hetherington (‘Restrepo’) Killed in Action
#4: No flash in the pan
Popcorn.js Brings HTML5 and Interactivity to Documentaries
#3: Mystery man
What if Banksy Wins an Oscar?
#2: Web threats
The Stop Online Privacy Act Catches the Web Off Guard
#1: Freedom fighters
The West Memphis 3, Subjects of the ‘Paradise Lost’ Documentary Series, Are Set Free