There are tons of things we love about the autumn, and the Chicago International Film Festival is definitely one of them. This year's edition, the 44th, runs October 16-29 and will include screenings of over 150 films. The full lineup hasn't been released yet but the festival site does offer a sneak peek. The promise of new movies from Brits Terence Davies and Mike Leigh and local fave Joe Swanberg are as exciting as a brand new sidebar to the festival, Green Screen, "a celebration of our natural environment, the power and artistry of filmmaking, and the intersection between the two." more ›

We interviewed local filmmaker Joe Swanberg recently and so we figured that was a pretty good excuse to talk to his sometime-partner-in-crime Andrew Bujalski. The two have been fountainheads of enthusiasm for the recent explosion in microbudget filmmaking. Bujalski has two features under his belt, Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation. Both are painfully hilarious (or hilariously painful) and startlingly lifelike: it's impossible to tell where the screenplays ends and improv begins. Pretentious comparisons to John Cassavetes and Richard Linklatter are hard to avoid, and like the latter, his honest handling of the foibles of youth are a billion miles away from Hollywood. more ›

Joe Swanberg isn't a typical filmmaker. His work is just as likely to capture characters discussing some quirky intricacy of life as it is graphic sex, and his on-going Chicago-set web series Young American Bodies is no exception. more ›

Now that the Chicago International Film Festival is over, we can finally turn our attention to some homegrown cinematic delights. Currently showing at the Siskel for a week-long run is Joe Swanberg's dramedy Hannah Takes the Stairs. A microbudgeted movie shot in Logan Square, it's been taking the festival circuit by storm and garnering write-ups in the New York Times. Despite his movie's acclaim, Swanberg himself, according to a new article in the Reader, is... more ›

Joe Swanberg, Director, Kissing On The Mouth more ›

The Chicago International Film Festival has a “sneak peek” on their website of the films that will screen at the festival this October. This year’s theme is “Film Capital of the World.” Wow. We get one Batman prequel and a Vince Vaughn flick and hyperbole breaks out faster at the Chicago Film Office than a teenage girl does on the day of Prom. Opening the fest will be the new Cameron Crowe film, Elizabethtown. We’re... more ›