Movies like Life in a Day (2011)
The best movies like Life in a Day (2011) are The Salt of the Earth (2014), Home (2009) and Baraka (1992). If Life in a Day hooked you with its documentary and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHuman (2015)8.4/10 from 317 votes
- NewestChristspiracy (2024)Released 2024
The Salt of the Earth (2014)
During the last forty years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed the major events of our recent history: international conflicts, starvations and exodus… He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of the wild fauna and flora, of grandiose landscapes: a huge photographic project which is a tribute to the planet's beauty. Salgado's life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last journeys, and by Wim Wenders, a photographer himself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHome (2009)
In 200,000 years of existence, man has upset the balance on which the Earth had lived for 4 billion years. Global warming, resource depletion, species extinction: man has endangered his own home. But it is too late to be pessimistic: humanity has barely ten years left to reverse the trend, become aware of its excessive exploitation of the Earth's riches, and change its consumption pattern.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBaraka (1992)
A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like this9/11 (2002)
An on-the-scene documentary following the events of September 11, 2001 from an insider's view, through the lens of two French filmmakers who simply set out to make a movie about a rookie NYC fireman and ended up filming the tragic event that changed our lives forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAn Inconvenient Truth (2006)
A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Light, Everywhere (2021)
Filmmaker Theo Anthony offers a far-ranging look at the biases in how people see things, focusing on the recorded image.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Citizenfour (2014)
In June 2013, Laura Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAshes and Snow (2005)
Ashes and Snow, a film by Gregory Colbert, uses both still and movie cameras to explore extraordinary interactions between humans and animals. The 60-minute feature is a poetic narrative rather than a documentary. It aims to lift the natural and artificial barriers between humans and other species, dissolving the distance that exists between them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCollapse (2009)
From the acclaimed director of American Movie, the documentary follows former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter Michael Ruppert. He recounts his career as a radical thinker and spells out his apocalyptic vision of the future, spanning the crises in economics, energy, environment and more.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnimal (2021)
16-year-old Bella and Vipulan are part of a generation convinced its very future is in danger. Between climate change and the 6th mass extinction of wildlife, their world could well be inhabitable 50 years from now. They have sounded the alarm over and over, but nothing has really changed. So they’ve decided to tackle the root of the problem: our relationship with the living world. Over the course of an extraordinary journey, they come to realize just how deeply humans are tied to all other living species. And that by saving them… we’re also saving ourselves. Humans thought they could distance themselves from nature, but humans are part and parcel of nature. For man is, after all, an Animal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & drama
Human (2015)
A collection of stories about and images of our world, offering an immersion to the core of what it means to be human. Through these stories full of love and happiness, as well as hatred and violence, it brings us face to face with the Other, making us reflect on our lives. From stories of everyday experiences to accounts of the most unbelievable lives, these poignant encounters share a rare sincerity and underline who we are – our darker side, but also what is most noble in us, and what is universal. Our Earth is shown at its most sublime through never-before-seen aerial images accompanied by soaring music, resulting in an ode to the beauty of the world, providing a moment to draw breath and for introspection. This film is a politically engaged work which allows us to embrace the human condition and to reflect on the meaning of our existence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Other Side (2015)
In an invisible territory at the margins of society, at the border between anarchy and illegality, lives a wounded community that is trying to respond to a threat: of being forgotten by political institutions and having their rights as citizens trampled. Disarmed veterans, taciturn adolescents, drug addicts trying to escape addiction through love, ex-special forces soldiers still at war with the world, floundering young women and future mothers, and old people who have not lost their desire to live. Through this hidden pocket of humanity, the door opens to the abyss of today's America.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & drama
A Beautiful Planet (2016)
A breathtaking portrait of Earth from space, providing a unique perspective and increased understanding of our planet and galaxy as never seen before. Made in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the film features stunning footage of our magnificent blue planet — and the effects humanity has had on it over time — captured by the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlanetary (2015)
Planetary presents a stunning visual portrait of our Earth, taking us on a journey across continents: from the African savannah to the Himalayas, and from the heart of Tokyo to the view of our fragile planet from orbit. Through intimate interviews with a diversity of people, from NASA astronauts and environmentalists to philosophers and Tibetan lamas, the film explores our shared future. It suggests that the key to transforming our civilisation lies in an understanding that all life is inseparably interconnected, and that we cannot change the world unless we change the way we see ourselves, our planet, and the wider cosmos we are embedded within.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Manufactured Landscapes (2006)
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDavid Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)
The story of life on our planet by the man who has seen more of the natural world than any other. In more than 90 years, Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the wild places of our planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. Addressing the biggest challenges facing life on our planet, the film offers a powerful message of hope for future generations.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Cove (2009)
The Cove tells the amazing true story of how an elite team of individuals, films makers and free divers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate the hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The shocking discoveries were only the tip of the iceberg.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisChristspiracy (2024)
The moral dimension of humanity's interaction with nonhuman animals and the industries that profit from their exploitation, as informed by world religions. A historical explanation of how the current global situation came to be.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Antarctica: A Year on Ice (2013)
Filling the giant screen with stunning time-lapse vistas of Antarctica, and detailing year-round life at McMurdo and Scott Base, Anthony Powell’s documentary is a potent hymn to the icy continent and the heavens above.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKoyaanisqatsi (1983)
Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Year of the Everlasting Storm (2021)
Featuring seven stories from seven auteurs from around the world, the film chronicles this unprecedented moment in time, and is a true love letter to the power of cinema and its storytellers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & documentary
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisConnected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology (2011)
Tiffany Shlain's documentary, Connected, explores the visible and invisible connections linking major issues of our time-the environment, consumption, population growth, technology, human rights, the global economy-while searching for her place in the world during a transformative time in her life. Employing a combination of animation and archival footage, Shlain constructs a chronological tour of Western modernization through the work of her late father, Leonard Shlain, a surgeon and best-selling author. Connected illuminates the beauty and tragedy of human endeavor while championing the importance of personal connectedness for understanding and coping with today's global conditions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Becoming Cousteau (2021)
Adventurer, filmmaker, inventor, author, unlikely celebrity and conservationist: For over four decades, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his explorations under the ocean became synonymous with a love of science and the natural world. As he learned to protect the environment, he brought the whole world with him, sounding alarms more than 50 years ago about the warming seas and our planet’s vulnerability. In BECOMING COUSTEAU, from National Geographic Documentary Films, two-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus takes an inside look at Cousteau and his life, his iconic films and inventions, and the experiences that made him the 20th century’s most unique and renowned environmental voice — and the man who inspired generations to protect the Earth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Samsara (2011)
Filmed over nearly five years in twenty-five countries on five continents, and shot on seventy-millimetre film, Samsara transports us to the varied worlds of sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes, and natural wonders.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe 11th Hour (2007)
A look at the state of the global environment including visionary and practical solutions for restoring the planet's ecosystems. Featuring ongoing dialogues of experts from all over the world, including former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA R. James Woolse
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFreightened: The Real Price of Shipping (2016)
In an audacious investigation, Freightened will reveal the mechanics and perils of freight shipment; an all-but-visible industry that holds the key to our economy, our environment and the very model of our civilisation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Shackleton's Captain (2012)
In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition headed for the South Pole and disaster. Shackleton's Captain reveals the truth behind the spectacular survival of all the crew and shows how one man's extraordinary skill and unsung heroism made it possible: Frank Worsley, Captain of the expedition ship, Endurance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & documentary
Voyage of Time: Life's Journey (2017)
A celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse. This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Eyes of Tammy Faye (2000)
A documentary look, mostly through the eyes of Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, at her rise and fall as a popular televangelist with husband Jim Bakker.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Life in a Day?
The closest matches to Life in a Day are The Salt of the Earth (2014), Home (2009) and Baraka (1992). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Life in a Day?
People who watched Life in a Day most often go on to The Salt of the Earth (2014), Home (2009) and Baraka (1992).
What is the highest-rated movie like Life in a Day?
Human (2015), rated 8.4/10 by 317 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Life in a Day?
Christspiracy (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Life in a Day?
Yes: Baraka (1992), 9/11 (2002) and An Inconvenient Truth (2006).
How are movies similar to Life in a Day chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Life in a Day, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.