Joe Swanberg

Joe Swanberg is an American independent filmmaker and actor. Known for micro-budget dramas^[1] which make extensive use of improvisation,^[2][3][4] Swanberg is considered a major figure in the mumblecore film movement.^[2][3] His films often focus on relationships, sex, technology, and the filmmaking process.^[2][1][5][6]

Life and career

Swanberg was raised in Naperville, Illinois.^[7] He graduated from Naperville Central High School and attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale as a film major, earning a Bachelor's Degree in 2003. Two years later, Swanberg directed his first feature, Kissing on the Mouth. He followed it with LOL (2006), which marked Swanberg's first time working with actress Greta Gerwig. Gerwig and Swanberg collaborated on the director's next two features: Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007), which also starred filmmakers Andrew Bujalski, Ry Russo-Young, and Mark Duplass and marked Swanberg's first collaboration with animator and actor Kent Osborne; and Nights and Weekends (2008), on which Gerwig shared a directing credit. Swanberg's next feature, Alexander the Last, was produced by Noah Baumbach, who would later cast Gerwig opposite Ben Stiller in his 2010 film Greenberg.

After spending all of 2009 working on Silver Bullets, Swanberg finished seven features in 2010: Uncle Kent, Caitlin Plays Herself, The Zone, Art History, Silver Bullets, Privacy Setting and Autoerotic (co-directed with horror filmmaker Adam Wingard). Uncle Kent premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011 and Silver Bullets and Art History premiered at the Berlinale in February. The rest of the 2010 films premiered theatrically in 2011 after screenings at film festivals. Four of these were later included in Joe Swanberg: Collected Films 2011, a DVD boxed set from the music and video label Factory 25.^[8]

In 2012 Swanberg wrote and directed the film Drinking Buddies, starring Olivia Wilde, Jake M. Johnson, Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston. The film was produced by Alicia Van Couvering and Andrea Roa and shot by Beasts of the Southern Wild cinematographer Ben Richardson. The film was acquired by Magnolia Pictures shortly after its SXSW Premiere.

Swanberg is a noted proponent of internet-based distribution for independent films and has made his 2011 feature, Marriage Material, available for free on his Vimeo page.^[9]

Filmography

As director, producer, and writer

As Actor

References

External links

• Joe Swanberg at the Internet Movie Database
• Official site
• GreenCine: "More excited than I have ever been": Interview with Joe Swanberg
• indieWIRE INTERVIEW: Joe Swanberg, director of "LOL"
• Filmmaker Magazine: What I Meant to Say
• Crothers, Reece (August 26, 2010). "The Movie That Killed Mumblecore". DailyFilmDose.com. Retrieved 2013-12-18.