The Lift (2001) - Analysis

Marc Isaac's The Lift starts with a simple concept, simply documenting the lives of people in an apartment building as they come in and out of their elevator. While this concept may seem mundane, it ends up giving a very intimate snapshot into their lives. Isaac had already been spending lost of time there and had a raport with the people, so introducing the camera adds another level of trust. Some of them are completely against it, asking him to get the camera out of their face or just shooting him strange looks, while others are very welcoming and chat away. A time goes on the people seem to become more comfortable, as the report that he has with them is strengthened. He ends up knowing all of them by name and starts asking progressively more personal questions about their dreams, childhood, and religion. 

He ends up blurring the lines of traditional documentary formats, as he must have some hand in what is going on. It isn't possible for him to just sit off camera and interview, but he has to interact in a way that becomes m much more transactional than a traditional documentarian. This inability to remain impartial and separated leads to quite sweet moments of connection between him and the people he's documenting, such as the man that shares food with him, or a woman who leaves him a picture of the Virgin Mary stuck to the wall of the elevator. It also becomes a case of them interviewing him, with one woman asking, "what motivates you to want to stand in lifts for ten hours a day?” He starts having an effect on their lives in a way similar to the one they have on his. One woman comes back to re answer a question that she wasn't happy with how she answered the first time. 

The way this is shot is mostly due to circumstance. There is only so much distance the camera can have from the subject when both are stuck in an elevator, but the level of closeness that he has with certain people can be seen from how close the camera is. For some, he stays as far away as possible, or they even recoil a bit from the camera, but others have little issue coming right up to it and talking, they become more comfortable with the Isaac and the camera, as it becomes a normality in their day to day life. However these are not the only shots he uses, he also has shots from outside the elevator, looking at the actual machinery behind it and the noise of it as it travels from floor to floor. These shots are a break from the inside of it and remind us of what he is doing, stressing situation. He also has shots in the reflection of the mirror in the elevator, just showing the banana and his camera. There are also shots of him sitting down in the elevator, while we may not see his face we see his hands and legs. He remains anonymous but he also shows his own involvement.