FILM FEATURE
PHILIP BOWSER

I like telling stories. The way I approached 'We Were The Swans' is rooted more in theatre than in the etiquette of filmmaking. I wanted a very real and natural story, and the conventions of film sets aren't conducive to that vision. Casting actors who are good at improv and were in character all night, while using a very minimal crew, allowed me to unobtrusively capture the subtle interactions in their growing relationship, which can easily be lost in the stop-and-start mechanics of film sets. I like to think of it as an experiment in directing style and story-telling, rather than filmmaking.