Indie Director Joe Swanberg talks to The Fan Carpet
Joe Swanberg, 33, is a rare breed of directors who instead of relishing in the opportunity of being the all-mighty puppet master, likes to keep instructions loose. The style has been associated with the term “Mumblecore” for its spontaneous, non-scripted dialogue and long takes. His latest feature “Happy Christmas” follows neatly down this path- the script consisting of an outline of only 15 pages. Joe Swanberg explains “The outline was there to make sure that the story has structure but really I want the actors to bring a lot to it and I want them to be involved. I want there to be flexibility so that if something nice happens on set we can change the rest of the outline to fit that.”
He seems to use the frame more like a stage and watching his films is closer to the experience of the theatre than the glitz of Hollywood’s silver screen. He reaches a niche audience; too highbrow for reality shows or Big Brother but immensely interested in the intimate and complex exchanges between and within ordinary people.
“If someone wanted to call it a documentary I would be fine with that,” he says. The story of “Happy Christmas” was inspired by two real-life events from Joe Swanberg’s family life; having his younger brother move in with him and his wife after he left college, and the time after the birth of his son when Joe Swanberg ended up working and his wife stayed at home.
“A lot of the emphasis come from conversations my wife and I were having about that change in her identity and her job when she went from being a filmmaker and entrepreneur to labeling herself as a ‘Stay-at-Home Mom’. She was having a lot of identity issues with that and also feeling like she couldn’t complain about it. There was so much pressure to have all these things; to be a great super mom who’s signing your kid up to all these classes and making organic baby food and also being a business person who goes to work every day.”
While rooted in his personal experiences, he says that the fictional feature film format is what suits him best. “I sort of found in my career that I can be more honest about certain things if I’m not making a documentary; you’re allowed to open up even more because you have a little bit of distance.”
Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men) plays Joe Swanberg’s wife and instead of casting his brother he picked Anna Kendrick who he worked with in his previous film “Drinking Buddies”. “I just think she’s so talented. I’ve had the experience of working with her and being kind of blown away by what she was doing.”
Lena Dunham (GIRLS) plays a supporting role, adding her usual wittiness to the film. “Lena and I have been friends for a very long time. She started sending me emails when she was in film school.” At that time Joe Swanberg and his wife were making a web series called “Young American Bodies”. It was a frank and unglamorous view into the love lives of six twenty-somethings in Chicago. “She sent me an email saying that she really liked the show we were making and offering her help if we ever needed help with anything. Then we met at South by Southwest film festival and I became friends with her and several of her New York friends.”
Dunham and Swanberg seem to share many of the same sensibilities. Lena Dunham’s TV series GIRLS has been praised for realistically pin-pointing and providing a funny insight into the relationships and culture of her generation.
Swanberg is hoping his film will similarly provide the audience with issues that haven’t yet been explored honestly on screen. “I’m hoping women, especially moms, go and see the movie [Happy Christmas] because it was important to me that these conversations that my wife and I were having would appear on screen. In our culture right now, I think it’s really hard for and that there’s a lot of pressure on women to ‘have it all’. I’m hoping the movie can start a discussion between husbands and wives about whose responsibility fall where and making sure that when women become mothers they are not feeling like they are just stuck in that role, there’s some flexibility there.”
Not exactly a popcorn movie subject matter, but Joe Swanberg says the scene for indie films is pretty bright. “Hollywood is moving more and more in the direction of these giant franchise, sequel type movies, that I think there is more space actually for interesting complicated independent films.”
Happy Christmas is available now on iTunes and screening in selected cinemas