Hannah Takes the Stairs

Steaming hot Chicago summer: Hannah begins an internship at a production company, landing in a stimulating creative exchange between hercoworkers, writers Matt and Paul. She enjoys the attention at work, breaks up with her passive boyfriend, and engages in relationships with first Matt, then Paul, violently rocking the balanceof the workplace and causing heartache. The following turmoil forces Hannah to face her actions and their possible destructive nature.Entirely relying on Do It Yourself film-ethicsthroughout the production, “Hannah Takes theStairs” conforms to the “mumblecore” aestheticin narrative style and subject matter with itscasual dialogue, meandering pace and explicittake on relationships and sex. The film was madewithout a script, with the story growing out ofthe cast and crew’s united work. Joe Swanberg’s body of work is in itself a good example of theblurring of boundaries between professionaland user generated content taking place in theconfessional digital era of the blogosphere,MySpace and YouTube. It also indicates a morepersonal way of making cinema, reducing thedistance to its audience.

Face2Face:
Friday 16 November
GRAND 16.00
WITH: Joe Swanberg (director)
MODERATOR: John Alexander