SXSW Interview: “It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home” Director Kris Swanberg

I traveled to Costa Rica 3 years ago to try and learn Spanish and to try and gain some feeling of independence in my life.  While telling a friend about that experience I thought it might be a good idea for a movie to show two girls traveling there together.  I had been interested in exploring the uniqueness of female friendship for a while and thought that this would be a good backdrop.  There is also something incredibly intimate about traveling with someone abroad that I thought would lend itself to the story. 

I tried for about a year to find the right people to make the film with and finally asked Jade Healy to join the project in July of 2008.  Ben Kasulke was already signed on and David Lowery quickly followed.  Things moved very quickly and we went to Costa Rica in December and spent three weeks in production. 

Please elaborate a bit on your approach to making your film.

Besides a few phone conversations before our trip, we didn’t have much prep time together as a crew.  I had a very broad idea of what kind of film I wanted to make, but we had very few specifics down.  Perhaps from my background in documentaries I was hoping to find the story there.  I also had a great deal of confidence in my crew and wanted to make the process as collaborative as possible. 

I discovered while in Costa Rica what I wanted the film to look and feel like.  I wanted to tell a story visually and without much exposition or dialogue.  I did not figure this out until midway through production, but now I think I’ve found my sort of filmmaking style. 

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?

My biggest challenge was definitely learning how to be a director.  I had a very difficult time expressing what I wanted a certain shot to look like or even what I wanted to take place in a scene.  I was sometimes surprised that Ben had shot something different from what I had in mind and then even more surprised to realize that I had not given him any direction as to what I wanted in the first place.

How do you define success as a filmmaker, and what are your personal goals as a filmmaker?

I think success is when you are ultimately pleased with what you have made.  My personal goals are to keep making films as ideas come to me and to keep making them with people that I enjoy working with. 

What are your future projects?

I am developing a project with my best friend Kate Johnston (formally Kate Winterich from “Kissing on the Mouth”).  She just had a baby and I want to make a narrative film about motherhood.  We are going to shoot it in a cabin in Montana over four different seasons.  We plan to start late this Summer.