Lift - Marc Issacs

Lift is a documentary short film by Marc Issacs from 2001. The film follows Marc as he documents part of the lives of numerous tenants from a london tower block in the lift of the complex. For the film Issacs sets himself and his camera up in the lift for a number of days and records the actions of several of the towers residents, sometimes asking them questions and sometimes observing them in silence.He focuses on their everyday working and social lives.
 Although at the beginning of the film the tenants often seem indifferent or irritated by Issacs presence, many of them gradually become more sociable and confiding with him. He interacts with the young and old, people of different ethnicities and religions. He observes friendly chats between the neighbours and also awkward silences and emotional distances between them. Friendly talkative men and women are contrasted with aggressive drunks, laughing children, shy and ignorant types and possible emotionally unstable tenants.
 Racial tensions can be felt in the tower of mixed nationalities. This can be seen in a shot in which a shy muslim girl and a drunk have to share the lift. In another scene a British woman talks to her friend about the lack of white people in the building alluding to a hostility toward the others. Religious diversities clash in a scene in which a Christian woman shares the lift with a Middle Eastern man who "does not say the rosary". Issacs clearly effects the life of one of the residents who claims his questions about her life led her to "begin thinking about all sorts". There are moments of humour such as a scene in which an eccentric old man demonstrates his supposed hairdressing talents. Certain tenants begin to open up to Issacs. One woman talks about how beautiful a day it is and how wonderful it is to be alive while another man describes his days as "watching the clock go by". Masks begin to slip as a woman evades the question when asked if she is happy. Another old, single woman is forced to contemplate when Issacs asks her if she would like to be married and a man pretends to be jolly while searching for meaning in the wrong places. Towards the end a depressed tenant opens up emotionally about the death of his parents and its effect on his mental state while a Middle Eastern man shares food with Issacs, emphasising his sense of national identity despite being in london.
In conclusion The Lift is an interesting, funny and often bleak insight into the lives of a group of tower block neighbours in one of Europes main cities. Issacs expertly interacts with his subjects exposing a glimps of the real, diverse, sometimes happy yet often empty lives of the residents.