Steel Homes is a short documentary directed by Eva Webber in
2008. The main theme of this documentary is memories and the connection people
have to their possessions, storing them away into a storage box full of stories
from parts of their life. Little is told about these memories but what we are told
through narration is enough to see how important storing these memories is to
these people.
The documentary feels lonely, with the lack of music and
sounds of metal doors opening and closing, and the sound of people wheeling their
possessions around the storage blocks. The director has chosen to only use a
few sentences of narration from each of the handful of people you see in this
documentary, explaining to us in little but powerful detail why they use these
storage blocks. You also feel as though the people you see coming into the
storage blocks keep themselves hidden away and only reveal certain things that
they want people to know. This is shown by not showing the audience any of the
possessions inside the storage cell, and when we are shown the inside of them
the camera is put of focus and at a close-up so it is difficult to tell what
these items are. The same technique is sometimes used on the narrators as you
don’t really get to see their faces for more than a couple of seconds in a shot
or the camera is not in focus. By doing this you are more drawn to the
narration than what you are seeing on screen.
You get a feeling of isolation from the amount of long shots
of the empty corridors. The place feels cold with no personality as you’re
looking at the rows of steel doors and white floors, however you know that
inside each of the cells they are brimming with people’s memories and possessions
that make them happy.
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