About The Filmmaker

Originally from Germany, Eva Weber is a London-based filmmaker working in both documentary and fiction.

Her films have screened at numerous international film festivals, amongst others, at Sundance, Edinburgh, SXSW, Chicago, and Thessaloniki. Her work has also been shown at art galleries and museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Eva is currently developing a number of long-form documentary projects.

Summary

A companion piece to our other film ‘The Solitary Life of Cranes’, ‘City of Cranes' is a poetic look at the life and work of crane drivers. Originally made for Channel 4, ‘City of Cranes’ is divided into four chapters: 'The City Above", "The Last Topman", "Ballet of Cranes" and "Solitary"; with each chapter accentuating a different aspect of the drivers’ world.

Questionaire

How did you find your contributors?

To begin with, I literally went to the biggest construction site near my home in East London, to see whether I could talk to the crane drivers there. The drivers turned out incredibly helpful putting me in touch not only with other drivers but also with their companies to help us get access for filming. Over the course of my research, I tried to talk to as many drivers as possible, before narrowing down the number for the audio interviews and subsequent filming.

Where has the film been seen and how did it get there?

The film was originally made for the 3-Minute Wonder strand on Channel 4 television in the UK but has also been aired on POV/PBS in the States.

Building on the success of my previous film ‘The Intimacy of Strangers’ on the festival circuit, we submitted the film to numerous international film festivals and the film has screened at over 50 festivals worldwide so far.

We also attended Docs for Sale at IDFA with the film, talking to a number of international distributors and sales agents, both in Europe and in the States, which were interested in distributing the film on our behalf. We eventually decided to go with Journeyman Pictures for worldwide sales. However, we are also self-distributing DVD copies of the film through our own website.

Did you use the film as a launch pad to a longer film on the same subject?

It was always my intention to make a companion piece to ‘City of Cranes’, entitled ‘The Solitary Life of Cranes’. Whilst ‘City of Cranes’ focuses on four different aspects of a crane drivers’ life, ‘The Solitary Life of Crane’ is more of a classical city symphony, showing 24 hours in the life of London seen through the eyes of crane drivers.

‘City of Cranes’ was in many ways the result of a chance conversation with a Channel 4 commissioning editor, after I had already started researching ‘The Solitary Life of Cranes’. We subsequently worked on both films simultaneously, trying to maximize our resources.

What are you doing now?

I am currently developing a number of feature-length documentary ideas, and have just received development funding for one of these films. Over the next few months, I am planning to travel to a number of different countries, looking for characters and developing the visual style of the film.