Director: Zhong Nianyu

Synopsis

At 4 a.m. on July 7, 2024, the crew arrived at a residential complex with elevators in the old town of Qingdao. What made it worth filming was that the elevator doors face each household's front door, and residents on each floor keep the things they use most, or used to use most, right there, showing the life of each family. In two hours we recorded dozens of households, without staging anything and keeping the scene exactly as it was. In post-production we simply rearranged the floors, and we were surprised to find that the different stages of life could be fully presented and stacked vertically in one or two buildings. Riding the elevator is like watching a film: over 30 floors, you see from birth to old age and death, and each time a door opens it is a slice of life. Birth, aging, illness and death are so ordinary, and joy and sorrow are seen every day; time and space blur, and it leaves you sighing. As it goes: up a floor, down a floor, you see a whole life.