A “One Second a Day” Video Like You’ve Never Seen Before

We’ve all seen these “photo a day” or “one second a day” videos before, time-lapse montages that show us the passage of time before our eyes: people having children, conquering long distances, and growing up.

But not every year in a life is so life-affirming, as this video so brutally reminds viewers. I confess I have somewhat mixed feelings about it—it’s perhaps even more baldly manipulative than it needs to be—but if I may be crude for a moment, I can’t help but admire its ingenuity (the cleverness of the concept) and craft (which is at the level of an expert short film). Whatever the reason, it appears to be working: The video has made it to the front page of Reddit. It will be hard to complain that it’s “manipulative” if it gets people to open their wallets for a worthy cause.