Joe Swanberg

Joe Swanberg

Born: August 31, 1981
in Detroit, Michigan, USA
Joe Swanberg (born August 31, 1981) is an American independent film director, producer, writer, and actor. Known for micro-budget films which make extensive use of improvisation, Swanberg is considered a major figure in the mumblecore film movement. His films often focus on relationships, sex, technology, and the filmmaking process, and include V/H/S (2012), Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007), Win It All (2017), Digging For Fire (2015), and Nights and Weekends (2008), the last of which was co-directed by Academy Award nominee Greta Gerwig.

Movies for Joe Swanberg...

Coven of the Black Cube
Title: Coven of the Black Cube
Character: Officer Lindley
Released: July 1, 2024
Type: Movie
A queer romance cursed by black magic and the occult!
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Blackout
Title: Blackout
Character: Stuart
Released: March 13, 2024
Type: Movie
Small town artist Charley is a tortured man whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, as his flashes of memory of his grisly nighttime acts manifest themselves through his artwork.
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Good Guy with a Gun
Title: Good Guy with a Gun
Character: Tom Greenwood
Released: December 2, 2022
Type: Movie
Follows a young man who after his father is murdered starts making bad choices, goes through life-threatening consequences and, of course, gets into guns.
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Offseason
Title: Offseason
Character: George Darrow
Released: March 11, 2022
Type: Movie
Upon receiving a mysterious letter that her mother's grave has been vandalized, Marie travels to the desolate island town where she's buried. Just as she arrives, the island closes for the season, leaving Marie trapped in a nightmare.
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Is This Water?
Title: Is This Water?
Character: Himself (voice)
Released: August 26, 2020
Type: Movie
A Movie about Water, Thievery, and Being a Prisoner to Conventional Thoughts.
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90 Years of the Music Box Theatre
Title: 90 Years of the Music Box Theatre
Character: Self
Released: August 7, 2019
Type: Movie
Nominated for two Chicago/Midwest Emmy awards including Outstanding Historical Documentary and Outstanding Off-Camera Directing, "90 Years of the Music Box Theatre" depicts filmmakers Werner Herzog, Lana Wachowski, Michael Shannon, Joe Swanberg, and more as they celebrate a 90-year-old cinema institution in Chicago, IL.
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Nobody Likes You as Much as I Do
Title: Nobody Likes You as Much as I Do
Character: Pauly
Released: April 6, 2019
Type: Movie
An American couple argues about the safety of a French girl after a night out.
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Flames
Title: Flames
Character: Joe Swanberg
Released: April 20, 2017
Type: Movie
A real romance filmed over five years. Josephine and Zefrey simmer in the white hot apocalypse of first love until the throw of a dart finds them on a spontaneous trip to the Maldives and cracks open the question -- is their love true or just a performance?
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Regional Bloodshed
Title: Regional Bloodshed
Character: self
Released: October 25, 2016
Type: Movie
Filmmakers Joe Swanberg and Spencer Parsons discuss the Midwestern roots and work ethic of Lewis' output and how The Gore Gore Girls represents the shift into transgressive '70s cinema that would dominate the American horror landscape.
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Uncle Kent 2
Title: Uncle Kent 2
Character: Joe
Released: August 26, 2016
Type: Movie
In a desperate search to create a follow-up to Joe Swanberg's 2011 film Uncle Kent, Kent Osborne travels to a comic book convention in San Diego where he loses his mind and confronts the end of the world.
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Joshy
Title: Joshy
Character: Aaron
Released: August 12, 2016
Type: Movie
After his engagement ends badly, Josh decides to take advantage of his bachelor-party plans in Ojai, California, with the few friends still willing to join him. Focused on drugs and their own hangups, his self-absorbed friends refuse to confront the elephant in the room and ask Josh how he’s feeling. As welcome and unwelcome guests stop by, Josh will attempt to find some closure over this weekend with the guys.
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Title: The Show About the Show
Released: October 6, 2015
Type: TV
Independent Filmmaker Caveh Zahedi is trying to make a television show. He persuades BRIC TV, a Brooklyn non-profit Arts organization, to finance a television show whose premise is that every episode will be about the making of the previous episode. In the process of creating the show, everything can-and does-go wrong. The cast, a who's who of Brooklyn's independent filmmaking community, includes Alex Karpovsky, Eleonore Hendricks, Dustin Defa, and Onur Tukel.
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Lace Crater
Title: Lace Crater
Character: Dean
Released: September 10, 2015
Type: Movie
Opting to sleep in the allegedly-haunted guest house while spending a weekend in the Hamptons with friends, Ruth, a lonely young woman in her mid-twenties who's had too much to drink, strikes up a conversation that leads to a sexual encounter with Michael, a burlap-draped ghost that casually appears before her. Through this inter-paranormal relation, Ruth contracts an STD with alarming effects.
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Bloomin Mud Shuffle
Title: Bloomin Mud Shuffle
Character: Brock
Released: April 11, 2015
Type: Movie
Middle-aged Lonnie hasn't done much since he graduated high school. His only shot at greatness is to take his relationship to the next level.
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There
Title: There
Character: Toth
Released: January 1, 2015
Type: Movie
A disgruntled veteran unable to adjust back into society justifies domestic terrorism by interpreting his actions with alien invasion.
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Happy Christmas
Title: Happy Christmas
Character: Jeff
Released: July 25, 2014
Type: Movie
After a breakup with her boyfriend, a young woman moves in with her older brother, his wife, and their 2-year-old son.
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Proxy
Title: Proxy
Character: Patrick Michaels
Released: April 18, 2014
Type: Movie
While walking home from her latest OB appointment, a very pregnant Esther Woodhouse is brutally attacked and disfigured by a hooded assailant. This horrible event seems to be a blessing in disguise when Esther finds consolation in a support group. Her life of sadness and solitude is opened up to friendship, understanding, and even acceptance. However, friendship and understanding can be very dangerous things when accepted by the wrong people.
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Thou Wast Mild and Lovely
Title: Thou Wast Mild and Lovely
Character: Akin
Released: February 7, 2014
Type: Movie
The arrival of a handsome new farmhand threatens the balance between a farmer and his daughter.
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White Reindeer
Title: White Reindeer
Character: George
Released: December 6, 2013
Type: Movie
After an unexpected tragedy, Suzanne searches for the true meaning of Christmas during one sad, strange December in suburban Virginia.
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The Sacrament
Title: The Sacrament
Character: Jake
Released: September 2, 2013
Type: Movie
Two journalists set out to document their friend's journey to reunite with his estranged sister. They track her to an undisclosed location where they are welcomed into the remote world of "Eden Parish," a self-sustained rural utopia composed of nearly two hundred members and overseen by a mysterious leader known only as "Father." It quickly becomes evident to the newcomers that this paradise may not be as it seems. Eden Parish harbors a twisted secret. What started as just another documentary shoot soon becomes a fight for survival.
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Drinking Buddies
Title: Drinking Buddies
Character: Angry Car Guy
Released: August 23, 2013
Type: Movie
Weekend trips, office parties, late night conversations, drinking on the job, marriage pressure, biological clocks, holding eye contact a second too long… you know what makes the line between “friends” and “more than friends” really blurry? Beer.
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You're Next
Title: You're Next
Character: Drake Davison
Released: August 22, 2013
Type: Movie
When the Davison family comes under attack during their wedding anniversary getaway, the gang of mysterious killers soon learns that one of their victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.
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24 Exposures
Title: 24 Exposures
Character: Literary Agent
Released: August 4, 2013
Type: Movie
Billy is a fetish photographer whose models begin to turn up dead. Michael, a melancholic cop, is tasked with investigating him.
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The Kings of Yorktown
Title: The Kings of Yorktown
Released: March 18, 2013
Type: Movie
Ed and Richard are brothers. They're also con artists. Not incredibly successful ones, but they get by. Ed's the leader. Richard's a bit slow. Their old pal Henry, who used to work with them, gave up the con life to work as a security guard at a bank in rural Yorktown. Ed convinces Henry to get back in the game and help them pull their biggest con yet. Of course, they'll have to wade their way through Yorktown's quirky cast of characters to get what they want, which, as is often the case, seems to be ever-changing.
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Detonator
Title: Detonator
Character: Sid
Released: March 2, 2013
Type: Movie
From rocker to family man, this captivating debut reveals the strife we face when it’s time to grow up. The rhythm of Sully’s (Lawrence Levine, Gabi on the Roof In July) life drastically changes when he abandons Philadelphia’s gritty punk rock scene for suburban simplicity. Now, in a dull office job, Sully must support his family, while the lifestyle he had lead is tough to let go. Nostalgia puts him in a paralyzing daze of somber apathy, prompting his exasperated wife to beg him to focus on the present. When his reckless ex-bandmate arrives unexpectedly and drags Sully on a nightlong scheme, pulling him back into his old ways, Sully must decide what to sacrifice. The familiarity livens his soul and awakens his emotions, but when the safety of his family becomes endangered will Sully be able to decide what matters to him most?
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Stage Brother
Title: Stage Brother
Character: Self
Released: September 22, 2012
Type: Movie
A family takes a journey into the world of adult entertainment.
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V/H/S
Title: V/H/S
Character: Sam (segment "Second Honeymoon")
Released: July 28, 2012
Type: Movie
When a group of misfits is hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire one rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they had bargained for.
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Empire Builder
Title: Empire Builder
Character: The Husband
Released: March 5, 2012
Type: Movie
Jenny's life has changed significantly since she had a baby. her days of food activism and urban anthropology have been replaced by diapers and playtime at the park. When she inherits a cabin in Montana, she leaves the comfort of her Chicago high-rise and travels with her baby to a remote part of the country. While she waits for her husband to join her, she fashions a temporary life of independence for herself - one which takes an unsettling turn when she begins a dangerous relationship with the man her husband hired to fix the property.
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Marriage Material
Title: Marriage Material
Released: January 12, 2012
Type: Movie
Emily and Andrew, a young couple living in Memphis, agree to babysit their friend’s 6-month-old for a day. The experience causes them to examine their own relationship and their feelings about marriage and children.
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Second Honeymoon
Title: Second Honeymoon
Character: Sam
Released: January 12, 2012
Type: Movie
A married couple, Sam and Stephanie, go out to the West for their second honeymoon and rent a hotel room. The couple visit a Wild West themed attraction where Stephanie receives a prediction from a mechanical fortune teller. The prediction says that she will be visited by a loved one. Later that night while at the hotel the couple is visited by a strange woman (the events are not shown on camera) who asks for a ride in the morning.
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Be Good
Title: Be Good
Character: Joe
Released: January 1, 2012
Type: Movie
Paul - a workaholic independent filmmaker - takes charge of his sleepless baby, Pearl, when his wife, Mary, returns to work. He is slowly driven crazy by his inability to work and becomes the jerk he thought he'd never be.
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Cats and Trees
Title: Cats and Trees
Character: Al
Released: January 1, 2012
Type: Movie
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Caitlin Plays Herself
Title: Caitlin Plays Herself
Character: Joe
Released: December 2, 2011
Type: Movie
Caitlin, a young Chicago performance artist, struggles to create work that is both personal and political. A piece she performs about the BP oil spill sends her relationship into a tailspin because her onstage nudity bothers her boyfriend.
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Silver Bullets
Title: Silver Bullets
Character: Ethan
Released: October 28, 2011
Type: Movie
An actress and her filmmaker boyfriend experience turbulence in their relationship when she accepts a role in a werewolf film.
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Art History
Title: Art History
Character: Sam
Released: September 23, 2011
Type: Movie
Tension mounts between a director and his lead actress on the set of a sexually explicit low-budget film. As the actress and her co-star develop real feelings for each other, the director's jealousy erupts and he begins sabotaging his own production.
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What Fun We Were Having: 4 Stories About Date Rape
Title: What Fun We Were Having: 4 Stories About Date Rape
Released: July 27, 2011
Type: Movie
An anthology film consisting of four segments, entitled "Hot Boys," "The Sleep Creep," "The Meat Man," and "Silver Bullets," each of which obliquely dramatizes an incident of sexual assault. The four stories take place in the same small American town on four different holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine's Day. "What Fun We Were Having" screened publicly once at the 2011 Fantasia International Film Festival, but received no further distribution.
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Autoerotic
Title: Autoerotic
Released: July 22, 2011
Type: Movie
Autoerotic follows four interconnected Chicago couples as they explore the boundaries of self-pleasure and sexual exploration. Through a unique blend of outrageous comedy and in-your-face sex, Autoerotic insightfully illuminates the private sexual lives of America’s urbanites.
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The Zone
Title: The Zone
Character: Director
Released: March 16, 2011
Type: Movie
A mysterious visitor spends the night at an apartment belonging to a young engaged couple and their friend. Over the course of the night and the following day he sleeps with all three roommates and then disappears, leading to conversations about God, life and filmmaking.
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Uncle Kent
Title: Uncle Kent
Character: Joe
Released: January 17, 2011
Type: Movie
A pothead kid's show cartoonist in Los Angeles spends a weekend trying to sleep with his visiting house guest - a woman from New York who he met on Chatroulette.
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A Horrible Way to Die
Title: A Horrible Way to Die
Character: Kevin
Released: September 14, 2010
Type: Movie
An escaped murderer is in pursuit of his ex-girlfriend, who has fled to start a new life in a small town.
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Blackmail Boys
Title: Blackmail Boys
Released: September 1, 2010
Type: Movie
After moving to Chicago for art school, Sam begins turning tricks to help pay the bills. His longtime, long-distance boyfriend Aaron can't stand to be apart and finally joins him, determined to find enough work so that Sam can give up having sex for money. When the two decide to tie the knot and move to a state where they can marry, their financial worries intensify...until Aaron spies on Sam with a prominent client, and everything changes. This sweet and sexually explicit love story becomes an exhilarating extortion tale. contains graphic sexuality
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Everyone Says I Look Just Like Her
Title: Everyone Says I Look Just Like Her
Character: Brandon
Released: July 19, 2010
Type: Movie
Two sisters, one white and one black, spend a week together at their famous father's summer home. A microscopic examination of the new American family unit, it's a deeply personal film about the human connections that bond us all together.
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Audrey the Trainwreck
Title: Audrey the Trainwreck
Character: Jeremy Roth
Released: March 17, 2010
Type: Movie
The story of two people caught in the routines of work and circles of friends. The days begin with an alarm and end with the fading sound of a television. Ron Hogan, a 28-year-old ATM parts purchaser, and Stacy Ryan, a 27-year-old, oddly charming courier, meet through a matchmaking Internet service and go through the routine of falling for one another.
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Birthday Suit
Title: Birthday Suit
Released: September 30, 2009
Type: Movie
A spoof behind-the-scenes look at Joe Swanberg's (non-existent) new film, Birthday Suit, about a young couple's "on again, off again" sexual relationship. The (non-existent) film uses cutting edge technology developed at the WETA Workshop to create the illusion of graphic sexual content.
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The Mountain, the River and the Road
Title: The Mountain, the River and the Road
Released: September 25, 2009
Type: Movie
Jeff, a wannabe writer flailing at his career, his romantic relationships and any effort to be a responsible adult, takes a road trip to flee his mundane life. After even that fails, he meets free-spirited motel clerk Cat, who revives his ambitions.
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Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever
Title: Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever
Character: Hazmat Team
Released: August 11, 2009
Type: Movie
A high school prom faces a deadly threat: a flesh-eating virus that spreads via a popular brand of bottled water.
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You Wont Miss Me
Title: You Wont Miss Me
Released: January 16, 2009
Type: Movie
A kaleidoscopic film portrait of Shelly Brown, a twenty-three year-old alienated urban misfit recently released from a psychiatric hospital.
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Nights and Weekends
Title: Nights and Weekends
Character: James
Released: October 10, 2008
Type: Movie
A man and woman must face the tension that builds between them during a long-distance relationship.
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Paintbrush
Title: Paintbrush
Released: June 26, 2008
Type: Movie
Made up entirely of stills, 'Paintbrush' presents portraits of ten users of a fictitious online social networking website. By detailing the information given by each user on their profile, the film explores themes surrounding identity, while also serving as a satire of online social networking.
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Present Company
Title: Present Company
Character: Archibald King
Released: March 1, 2008
Type: Movie
Leading very separate lives, Christy and her boyfriend Buddy live together in her parent's basement with their baby Mikey. As Christy, a waitress and aspiring writer, and Buddy, a plumber's apprentice, struggle with the realities of their lives, questions are formed about obligations, consequences, and all the identities we employ to get through the day.
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Quiet City
Title: Quiet City
Character: Adam
Released: August 29, 2007
Type: Movie
Jamie is 21. She's from Atlanta. She's come to Brooklyn to visit her friend Samantha, but she can't find her. Jamie meets a stranger named Charlie on the subway and spends 24 hours hanging out with him.
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Hohokam
Title: Hohokam
Character: The Jeffery
Released: July 1, 2007
Type: Movie
After an old friend's visit ends, Lori is feeling a bit down. Bored with her job, agitated at home, and frustrated with money problems, Lori takes out her anger on her ex-marine boyfriend, Anson. However, after a broken mug, a trip to the zoo and a case of the shingles Lori's mood changes.
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The Timebox Twins
Title: The Timebox Twins
Character: Boy
Released: June 28, 2007
Type: Movie
A brother and sister discover the secret behind the "timebox" a device that is used to keep schools on schedual, you hook four together and get a time machine!
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Grammy's
Title: Grammy's
Character: Clarence
Released: March 12, 2007
Type: Movie
Two brothers have a really bad time on a fishing trip until a stranger makes them a bizarre but lucrative offer.
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Title: Young American Bodies
Character: Ben
Released: May 2, 2006
Type: TV
Young American Bodies is an American web series, which originally premiered on Nerve.com and currently airs on IFC and at IFC.com in the United States. Each short episode looks into the intersecting love lives of six twenty-somethings in Chicago. The series is produced and directed by Joe Swanberg, the director of Hannah Takes The Stairs and Nights and Weekends.
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LOL
Title: LOL
Character: Tim
Released: March 13, 2006
Type: Movie
The relationships of three men are examined through their use of technology.
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Kissing on the Mouth
Title: Kissing on the Mouth
Character: Patrick
Released: March 12, 2005
Type: Movie
Ellen is sleeping with her ex-boyfriend while trying to ignore the fact that he's looking for more than just sex. Her roommate, Patrick, isn't helping matters with his secretive and jealous behavior.