- Joe Swanberg
Chicago filmmaker Joe Swanberg is a central figure at this year’s Indie Memphis Film Festival. His latest feature, the excellent Alexander the Last, is an emotionally complex and formally ambitious film that breaks through the boundaries of the so-called “mumblecore” scene with which Swanberg is identified. It will screen tomorrow night at 7:45 p.m.. Additionally, Swanberg will preside over a workshop on working with non-professional actors (Sunday, 1 p.m., Brooks Museum) and factors in four other films screening at the festival: A co-star in The Mountain, The River, and The Road (Friday, 5:45 p.m.), a producer on his wife, Kris Swanberg’s debut feature It Was Fun But I Was Ready to Come Home (Saturday, noon), a crew member on David Lowery’s St. Nick (Sunday, 2:45 p.m.), and the camera operator for local filmmaker Kentucker Audley’s Open Five, which debuts its trailer (Friday, 3:45 p.m.).
When I talked with Swanberg last week, he had a lot of interesting things to say, more than I had room for in the paper this week. So here’s a pretty long excerpt from our conversation, for those interested in going more in-depth on this emerging filmmaker:
Flyer: Before we get into Alexander the Last, let’s go over a few other topics. You’re involved in several films screening at the festival, but you’re also doing a workshop. What’s your plan for that?
Joe Swanberg: The workshop is about working with non-professional actors, which I think is becoming more and more common — people making movies with their friends or other people they’re casting not through traditional avenues. I just really wanted to do a workshop that would hopefully be helpful and relevant to what I’m seeing going on right now. The idea is that I’ll talk a little bit about my experiences and maybe I’ll show some of my work. But I also really want to demonstrate some of the techniques I’ve picked up and actually work with some people so that everybody can come away with a little bit of an idea of the good and bad things about working with non-professionals.
How did you think the Open Five shoot went?
I thought it was great. I had a blast being down there. It was a good small crew of people I really liked working with. I would do that in a second.
Have you seen any of the finished product?
No, I got a chance to see [actors] Jake [Rabinbach] and Shannon [Esper] again because we shot one more scene in New York. And I’ve talked to [director] Andrew [Nenninger, aka “Kentucker Audley”] since the shoot. But I’m excited to check it out.
