AFI-Discovery Channel SILVERDOCS 2009

In this companion piece to CITY OF CRANES (SILVERDOCS ’08), anonymous crane operators muse about their unique occupation while the camera voyeuristically captures London scenes. This is a wonderful short that contemplates the modern metropolis and its unceasing development.

Filmmaker Q&A

Introduce yourself:
Originally from Germany, I am a London-based director working in both documentary and fiction. I began my career making several award-winning short fiction films, before joining the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1998. Whilst working as a director for BBC Broadcast, I directed numerous promotions, commercials and branded films for the BBC and other television and advertising companies. Since leaving the BBC, I have directed the short documentary THE INTIMACY OF STRANGERS, which premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival and has screened at over 50 festivals worldwide. Amongst others, the film won the President’s Award at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Building on the success of THE INTIMACY OF STRANGERS, I directed CITY OF CRANES for Channel 4 Television. Described as ‘stunningly poetic’ by Dox Magazine, the film won, amongst others, the Award for Best Documentary Short at Los Angeles Film Festival, the Jury Award for Best Short at Full Frame and the Hellenic Red Cross Audience Award at Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival. In 2008, I directed the short film STEEL HOMES for the Scottish Documentary Institute. The film was premiered at IDFA 2008, and received its North American premiere at Sundance in January 2009. Most recently, I completed the 27-minute film THE SOLITARY LIFE OF CRANES, a companion piece and follow-up to CITY OF CRANES. Part city symphony, part visual poem, THE SOLITARY LIFE OF CRANES was premiered at Britdoc Film Festival as work-in-progress in July 2008, where it won the Award for Best British Short Film. The film was described as “one of the most absorbing documentaries of the year” by The Observer newspaper. I am currently developing a number of long-form documentary projects.

What inspired this film?   How did you find your subjects?
I originally became fascinated by the idea that there is almost another world above London, yet most of us never look up to notice cranes or their drivers. The drivers in turn can see everything going on below them, yet their only way to connect with the world they are building is by watching it from a distance. In many ways, the film builds and expands on themes touched upon in some of my other films such as THE INTIMACY OF STRANGERS - the conflict between being intimate yet distant; and how our lives are shaped by our urban environment. One of the drivers describes in the film how he can see the same person in a building every day and it is almost like this person becomes part of his life, yet when he sees the same person in the street, they would not know him. However, once I started researching the film further, I was also just blown away by the sheer beauty of being up on a crane and seeing the world from such a different point of view.

When I started researching the film, I literally went to the biggest construction site near my house, a multi-crane site near Liverpool Street Underground station in the City of London, asking whether I could speak to some of the drivers working there. The drivers there proved to be incredibly helpful and in turn put me in touch with other drivers. What I did not realize is that they would also tell all of their colleagues and friends at other sites about me, as soon as I had left them. So by the time, I went to another site a few blocks away, the drivers there had already heard of the woman going around wanting to make a film about crane drivers.

What were some of the biggest challenges/surprises?
When I set out on my research for this film, I didn’t realize that making this film might actually take longer than for the drivers to put up a 50-storey building. Getting access to construction sites proved to be an incredibly slow and difficult process, not helped by the fact that at the time there were a number of accidents involving cranes in London.

I remember going with my crew to an hour-long health & safety briefing at a building site behind the Tate Modern one morning, as we had been given permission to film there the following day; only for my producer to call me later in the day with the news that the construction company had changed their mind and now would not allow us on site. Within the following few hours, my producer lost access to all but one site in what was almost a chain reaction, as construction companies, clients and site managers panicked about our film highlighting possible health & safety violations. In the end, it took another two months of constant e-mails, phone calls and meetings, to convince some of the companies to allow us albeit limited access. The filming itself proved to be no less complicated.  We soon found out that there is no easy way to bring a HDCAM (and initially a S16mm) camera kit up a 40-metre high crane. Whatever way you try, it involves a lot of climbing up ladders. There was also no telling who had the stomach to work up on a crane. Crewmembers who felt they would have no problem with the height, ended up not being able to take the movement. The tower of a crane twists and turns sideways as they slew round, and bends forwards and backwards as they lift up a load. Being up on the tower, hearing the crane creak and seeing the metal of the structure twist in front of you, can be a rather unnerving experience.

Who are some of your favorite filmmakers?
Alfred Hitchcock, Werner Herzog. Chris Marker. Many more.  

What is your all time favorite documentary?
Impossible to answer. Different films for different reasons.

What other projects are in the pipeline?
We are currently working on a longer version of STEEL HOMES, provisionally entitled L.A. STORAGE.  L.A. STORAGE has been developed through the Discovery Campus Master School and was pitched at DOK Leipzig last year. Set in Los Angeles, L.A. STORAGE is an evocative and revealing portrait of life at a self-storage warehouse in the lead-up to an auction. It tells the story of those who are desperately trying to hold onto the remnants of their lives, and of those professional bidders who make a livelihood out of the broken pieces of somebody else's dreams.

As the recession tightens its grip and more and more people join the rank of the unemployed, people are not only losing their homes but also their self storage units. What emerges is a compelling exploration of what we value in our modern times. Is our identity, our self-image tied up with what we own, and how do we then react when we face the risk of losing it all?

I am also working on a feature documentary, called LIFE IN TRANSIT, and developing the fiction feature, GHOST WIVES.

What are some of your creative influences?
The city. My environment. Reading. Conversations with friends and colleagues.

Did you go to film school?
I studied Media and Communications at Goldsmiths' College in London with an emphasis on scriptwriting and documentary filmmaking, before going on to do an MA in TV Drama at Goldsmiths'. I subsequently attended the Project Development Lab/Advanced Course at the National Film and Television School.

What do you shoot on?
I have shot both on film and digital formats. THE SOLITARY LIFE OF CRANES was shot on a combination of HDCam and S16mm, whilst Steel Homes was shot on HDV using a move tube. 

Why did you want to screen your film at SILVERDOCS?
My previous films THE INTIMACY OF STRANGERS and CITY OF CRANES screened at Silverdocs, and I have always enjoyed the atmosphere at the festival. I have had some great audiences for my films there, and it's been a wonderful experience.