Joe Swanberg’s new feature “”Hannah Takes the Stairs” marks his third consecutive South by South West Film Festival premiere, following his “Kissing on the Mouth” in 2005 and “LOL” last year.
Long the number one showcase for new music talent, SXSW has grown in recent years to be one of a handful of top North American film festivals.
A relentlessly DIY filmmaker who shoots and edits his own work, Swanberg specializes in queasily intimate portraits of young adult sexuality, shot in verit?-style DV and developed in collaboration with his cast.
ReelChicago spoke with Swanberg about the production of “Hannah,” his first as a full-time filmmaker, his first in which he did not act, and his first on HD.
ReelChicago: What inspired “Hannah?”
Joe Swanberg: I started out wanting to make a film about the way we are capable of changing based on the people we are around.
Over the course of developing the idea, casting and starting to shoot, I kept the idea of following the female character through multiple relationships, but I became less interested in the way we change based on other people and more interested in the way we use other people to satisfy different desires in ourselves.
Each relationship she experiences in the film satisfies her on some levels and leaves her unsatisfied on others, and that struggle with herself became the focus.
RC: How did “Hannah” provide you with an opportunity to be a full time filmmaker, without balancing a day job or other obligations?
JS: During July and August 2006 I was solely focused on the production of this film, and that had a huge impact in the way I was able to work. It allowed me a level of focus I was never able to have before, and the result is a film that feels much less frantic than “Kissing on the Mouth” and “LOL.”
