Creative Tribalism

"Joe Swanberg is changing today's definition of a film artist. He is not a studio auteur in the 20th-century sense of Alfred Hitchcock or Peter Jackson. Neither is he an "artist" in the sense popularized by the Romantic 19th-century: an isolated genius expressing his singular vision, like Bergman or Godard. Instead, Swanberg's art emerges from the dynamic creative collaborations he has with actors, technicians, fellow moviemakers and audiences, and he deftly juggles subject matter and genre... With his boundless master-of-all-trades energy, the actor-director-editor-producer most closely corresponds to the template of a tribal craftsman."

- Sean Hood, "The Creative Tribalist," MovieMaker Magazine Summer 2014