Even before she became a mother, Kris Swanberg said motherhood had always interested her.
As a result, she said some of her films have focused on pregnancy including “Empire Builder” and “Unexpected,” both of which screen at the IU Cinema this week.
Friday, Swanberg will also speak as part of the cinema’s Jorgensen Guest Lecture Series.
She will also present the 1953 independent film “Little Fugitive.”
Swanberg said she has been influenced by “Little Fugitive,” which tells the story of a young boy running away to Coney Island after believing he killed his brother.
“It’s a film that I discovered on my own one day while walking through a video store many years ago,” she said. “It really employs many of the naturalistic techniques that I employ in my films.”
Her 2015 film “Unexpected” follows an inner-city teacher, played by Cobie Smulders, who becomes pregnant at the same time as one of her students with whom she develops an unlikely friendship.
“It has a lot to do with social class and impending motherhood and is a very personal story for me,” she said.
2014’s “Empire Builder,” which tells the story of a new mother who abandons her life in Chicago and moves to Montana, screened Thursday at the cinema.
Swanberg, who studied documentary film at Southern Illinois University, said she makes her narrative films with a naturalistic, borderline documentary tone.
By using a natural-sounding script, selective casting and improvisation, she said she prefers crafting scenes that feel like real conversations.
Swanberg said she thinks most people tend to think of improvisation as improvised comedy, which is different from what her films seek to achieve.
“It requires a lot of preparation and discussion ahead of time: talking about what’s going to happen in the scene, what the point of the scene is, where we are in the plot, what needs to be accomplished,” she said. “It’s a matter of finessing it take after take.”
Due to the limiting nature of documentary films, narrative films have granted her more freedom of creation, she said.
“You can only capture what they want you to capture,” she said. “You can’t lay in bed and go to sleep with them, or be with them during really intimate moments. In narrative film, you can do that.”
Though she only has five directing credits so far, Swanberg’s work has been seen across the country.
“Unexpected” premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and 2009’s “It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home” screened at 2009’s South by Southwest film festival.
Despite this, she said she believes being a successful filmmaker means simply continuing to make work she cares about.
“To have some desire to please everyone and for the masses to really enjoy your work is borderline impossible,” she said.
Swanberg said the most important advice she always gives to aspiring filmmakers is to keep making films, regardless of budget, story or schedule.
“It sounds really simple, but it becomes very difficult,” she said. “People put a lot on the idea of making a movie and end up never doing that. I’ve always found the most success in just making it.”
