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Just before kickoff of tonight’s Super Bowl, a trailer aired for an upcoming documentary project, and it featured a brief flash of a scene familiar to many Portlanders.
The movie, Life in a Day, is a "YouTube Original," directed by British filmmaker Kevin Macdonald and produced by Ridley Scott. It's a sequel to a similar cinematic "time capsule" from 2011 and made up of self-shot footage submitted by people around the world, all of it taken on the same day: July 25, 2020.
As you might recall, that was the height of Portland's Black Lives Matter protests, when then-President Donald Trump reinvigorated the nightly demonstrations by sending federal troops to "protect" the courthouse downtown. So naturally, there's at least a little bit of Portland in the film.
In the clip that aired tonight, there's a quick shot of a flash grenade, followed by about a second of the Wall of Moms, who you might remember were a big thing at the time. (July 25 happens to be the day children's songwriter Raffi released a song about them.)
How much of Portland will make it into the actual film? Watch the whole thing here to find out. But be forewarned: The reviews are not great.
There were a few other Portland-related cameos during the game as well. In addition to Grant High School alum Ndamukong Suh winning a Super Bowl ring, Portland-raised comedian Matt Braunger appeared in a commercial for Miracle-Gro alongside Martha Stewart, Stanley from The Office, some NASCAR driver and John Travolta, who will apparently just appear in anything now:
