AFI-Discovery Channel SILVERDOCS 2009

In these times of insatiable consumption, self-storage facilities have become ubiquitous. Who inhabits these industrial spaces? And what do these metal containers contain? With characteristic flair, SILVERDOCS alum Eva Weber turns her camera on self-storage facilities, revealing what is hidden behind the padlocked doors.

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?
Many people see self-storage warehouse solely as places where we can temporarily and safely store our belongings, when we move house, run out of space at home or go off traveling. Yet, if one works out the weekly rental against the cost of an old bed, a couple of chairs, some paintings and piles of old books, then it becomes quickly apparent that the things we store are of emotional rather than financial value. For me, storage units are places where we can forget about things until we are ready to deal with them, where we can hide parts of ourselves we do not want anyone else to see, or where we can hold onto lost dreams and hopes. The objects we store can literally tell the story of our lives – each ornament, photo or old gramophone record takes us on a journey through our past, present and into our future.

On a personal level, storage centers fascinate me as they represent a home away from home, personal and remote, familiar yet foreign. Having left Germany more than a decade ago to live in London, I am more and more drawn to subject matters that explore feelings of homelessness, dislocation and loneliness; and one recurring motive in this film is of people in a kind of temporary or permanent limbo – from Sofia who moved back with her parents whilst redecorating her house, to Jeff, an American artist, who lives in the UK with his family, but feels he has lost touch with his creativity since leaving NY, to Anthony who had to sell his family house to pay for his mother’s nursing home and now feels he hasn’t got a place where he can be himself. 

I was able to find my characters through a mixture of personal contacts (literally asking everyone I knew if they had things in self storage or knew someone who had used storage), as well as by hanging out in self-storage warehouses, waiting for people to visit their units. Anyone who has spent any length of time in one of these centers knows that this is not an entirely pleasant experience: their climate-controlled interiors might be good for the things people store in them, but do make a rather chilly place to sit and wait. Yet with time, I got to understand the internal rhythms of each warehouse: the times when business customers turn up and leave in the mornings and early evenings, and the best time to catch private customers as they drop in for quick visits or to go through their belongings. Each warehouse seemed to have its own rhythm, depending on its location and access hours.

What were some of the biggest challenges/surprises?
Logistically, the biggest challenge during the making of the film was gaining access to the different storage centers, due to security reasons. The film was actually filmed at four different centers, although through the editing we were trying to convey the idea that most of it was filmed in one place. The filming itself was in comparison pretty straightforward and was done over two long weekends in spring. As I had already done most of the audio interviews before the start of filming, we had a pretty good idea who we wanted to film and where. However, there were still plenty of surprises in store for us: Like the couple who agreed to be filmed, only to realize that they could not get into their unit, as they had not paid their last two months rental charge; or the moment when all our equipment got stuck in a goods lift and it took the centre manager almost an hour to open the lift doors again.

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. 

What has been the most unexpected thing to happen since taking the film on the festival circuit?
My favorite moment with STEEL HOMES was meeting a woman on a shuttle bus at Sundance who had seen my film the previous night and subsequently invited me to her house for dinner with her family and some of her friends. It was one of the most enjoyable evenings at the festival.

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.