An Elstree Project documentary
Staircases to Nowhere: Making Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”
An oral-history documentary telling the story of the production through the memories of the people who helped create The Shining at EMI-Elstree Studios.
Film at a glance
- Film
- Staircases to Nowhere
- Format
- Oral-history documentary
- Director and editor
- Howard Berry
- Produced by
- The Elstree Project
- Original short
- 2012 · 18 minutes · five interviews
- Expanded documentary
- 2013 · ten interviews
- Criterion special edition
- 2026 · fifteen interviews
- Subject
- The making of The Shining at EMI-Elstree Studios
About the film
The production remembered by the people who were there
The Shining was made at EMI-Elstree Studios in Borehamwood during 1978 and 1979. Its enormous sets occupied stages, workshops, the backlot and other production spaces across the studio.
Staircases to Nowhere approaches that history through first-hand testimony. Rather than attempting to decode the film or impose a single explanation upon its production, it brings together the recollections of the craftspeople and technicians whose work created the Overlook Hotel on screen.
Their memories reveal the practical work behind the images: the collaboration, problem-solving, working relationships and everyday experiences of making a Stanley Kubrick film.
The interviews have also contributed to the wider historical record. They informed the research for Lee Unkrich and J. W. Rinzler’s TASCHEN book Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and are quoted within it.
At the heart of the documentary is a simple principle: the people who made The Shining should have the opportunity to tell its story.
From five voices to fifteen
The film’s development
Staircases to Nowhere has grown as The Elstree Project’s oral-history archive has developed, allowing more of the production’s participants to contribute their memories.
The original short
An 18-minute documentary built around five interviews, introducing the production through the memories of members of its crew.
The expanded documentary
Five further interviews brought the total to ten, creating a much fuller oral history of the work undertaken at Elstree.
The Criterion special edition
A complete re-edit incorporating five additional interviews and approximately twenty minutes of further material, bringing the total number of interviewees to fifteen.
The Criterion Collection
Part of The Complete Kubrick
The expanded special edition of Staircases to Nowhere was released in North America on 20 October 2026 as part of The Criterion Collection’s The Complete Kubrick.
The 30-disc 4K UHD and Blu-ray collector’s set brings together Kubrick’s thirteen feature films and three short films alongside more than twenty-five hours of documentaries, interviews and behind-the-scenes material.
Explore the production
Discover how The Shining was made at Elstree
Explore the stages, sets and production spaces used to create the Overlook Hotel through The Elstree Project’s interactive production story.
Responses to the film
What viewers and critics have said
“If you’re looking for an in-depth breakdown of how The Shining was made, this is not it. If you’re looking for a tapestry of human memory about what it was like to work with Stanley Kubrick behind the camera, it’s pretty lovely.”
Letterboxd user review
“Like being on set with Stanley Kubrick.”
British Film Institute
“The film is a treasure of impressively high calibre interviews with people closely associated with the film.”
FEEL Guide
“Might be the greatest documentary about ‘The Shining’ ever made.”
Movies.com