Lift is a 2001 25 minute documentary by director Marc Isaacs. It features him sat in a lift (elevator) in a London flat block where he begins talking to residents of the building.
There is no plot and there is no real intention to the film, besides simply showing the residents of the block in a situation that everyone is familiar, yet uncomfortable with, showing them in the most simple form, answering basic universal questions and explaining their lives.
As it progresses, Marc and the audience learn more about the residents. They learn about the Indian man who shows up with different foods (and possibly doesn't know what a banana is), the Jewish woman that feels lonely, the schizophrenic man and the man trying to pull, as well as some other short scenes with other residents that almost help you learn about the building. It might not feel like you've learned anything, but it does make you start to consider the lives of those around you with more interest. You begin to think about them and their lives that you'd never know because you're simply never going to talk to them about it, and it makes you wonder who and what they are. Maybe today you walked past a murderer, or the next hit Hollywood director. The film almost makes you realise that you'll never know this, and it makes you understand humans more than it makes you particularly learn anything, presenting itself as one of the most unique documentaries possible.
I think the documentary was a mostly objective, performative film. It evokes and implies emotion with little to no interaction and/or bias. Marc interrupts very little to the average lift goers routine other than to occasionally ask them how their day went, or what they dreamed of, and he never particularly presents his opinions, stating any facts or figures and instead opting to observe behaviour.
I think the fact that Marc was present in the film with a large camera, taking up almost a third of the available pace, it encourages people to almost start feeling uncomfortable about his presence, which both encourages and forces the story at different points. The lonely, old lady uses the camera to express herself, while other people such as a religious Irish woman are simply represented by the camera, but could have behaved as they did whether or not it was there.
I also believe that, had the film explored people outside of their lift lifestyles that the film would have lost a large portion of its appeal. The film builds up to its nothingness in this seemingly natural way because we are always in the lift and we, unlike Marc, can't opt to leave it at any point, we have to be there and experience the people who enter. If any planning, set up or following of the people had been used it would have removed the confines of the lift, removed the natural flow of people talking to 'the man in the lift' and removed the constant stream of nothingness that kept the film interesting.
Lift has been part of the start of my second year of college, in which we will be making factual documentary films with probable inspiration from the film.
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