John Sayles
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Cinema of Bread and Roses: An Interview with Maggie Renzi and John Sayles
Near the end of Matewan (1987), socialist union organizer Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper), a guiding light and galvanizing force for a West Virginia town of striking coal miners under siege, attempts to console frustrated young Danny Radnor (Will Oldham), a nascent preacher and union man. Overwhelmed by the violence and hardships they’ve suffered, the boy gives into despair, declaring in rage and desperation that it’s every man for himself. Joe’s stirring reply is that they must all look after each other, no matter what. Though followed by a long-brewing scene of climatic violence, this quiet but deeply moving moment between […]
by Ruairí McCann on Dec 18, 2023 -
“I Had Gunfight Westerns in Mind With the Structure”: Writer/Director John Sayles on the Criterion Rerelease of Matewan
When John Sayles wrote and directed Matewan in 1987, he was already a hero to those of us following American independent film, both for his witty, energetic genre screenplays (Piranha, The Howling, Battle Beyond the Stars) and for his self-financed directorial efforts (Return of the Secaucus Seven, Lianna, The Brother From Another Planet). His movies as writer-director, which also included a detour into studio filmmaking with the exquisite coming of age drama Baby It’s You, were major inspirations for an entire generation of aspiring filmmakers, because they gave us a high standard of excellence to reach for yet also seemed […]
by Jim Hemphill on Feb 28, 2020 -
Looking Backwards To Look Forward
Lately, it seems that events are conspiring to make me look backwards. First of all, about two years ago, I was invited to donate my personal archives to the University of Michigan’s Screen Arts Mavericks & Makers Collection. It was an incredible honor to be joined with such illustrious company as Orson Welles, Robert Altman, John Sayles, Alan Rudolph, Nancy Savoca and, most recently, Jonathan Demme. But it was also a bit nerve-wracking to think that total strangers would be rummaging through my proverbial attic—a hoarder’s collection of film posters, correspondence (actual hardcopy letters, memos and mimeographs!), grosses and marketing […]
by Ira Deutchman on Sep 17, 2018 -
“We Got Over 90 Setups One Day”: John Sayles on Eight Men Out
Few directors in the history of American film have presented a perspective on the human condition as complex, varied, and compassionate as that of John Sayles. The quintessential independent filmmaker, he once said, “I’m interested in the stuff I do being seen as widely as possible but I’m not interested enough to lie.” He has remained true to that ethos from his directorial debut, The Return of the Secaucus Seven, to his most recent gem, Go For Sisters. No one tells the truth with as much humor, pain, sympathy, irony, or expansiveness as Sayles, a man to whom no aspect […]
by Jim Hemphill on Nov 10, 2015 -
John Sayles’ New Project To Save the Man Set to Shoot Next Summer
Two pillars of the independent film movement are set to collaborate for the first time on To Save the Man, a boarding school movie set in 1890 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. The film tells the story of an Ojibwe boy named Antoine LaMere who is sent to Carlisle, where native boys and girls from all over the country have been brought to learn how to be white — and to reject their own cultures. Antoine uses his wits to survive, falls in love, and when the spiritual movement known as the Ghost Dance spreads on the western reservations, culminating […]
by Jim Hemphill on Oct 21, 2015 -
Five Questions with Go For Sisters Director John Sayles
Childhood friends Bernice (LisaGay Hamilton) and Fontayne (Yolanda Ross) have been out of touch for a few years. When they reconnect, during an early sequence in John Sayles’ 18th feature film Go For Sisters, it is over a desk. Bernice, a parole officer, sits before folders of rap sheets to one side; Fontayne, a former junkie and criminal, fidgets on the other. It doesn’t take long, however, for the circumstance to turn from professional to personal. When Bernice’s drug running son vanishes near the Mexican border, she calls on Fontayne to help track him down. The two women head South, […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 8, 2013 -
Day 1 of 25: James Ponsoldt and The Spectacular Now
A new, occasional column here at Filmmaker, “The Shooting Schedule” looks at film production through the prism of a single shoot day. I peruse a film’s call sheet and production report and ask the director questions solely based on what I see there. To launch the column, I couldn’t think of anyone better to talk to than my friend James Ponsoldt, whose third feature, The Spectacular Now, opens today. A contributor to Filmmaker — and a director whose first feature, Off the Black, Robin O’Hara and I produced — Ponsoldt has made with The Spectacular Now an indelible teen romance […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 2, 2013 -
Werner Herzog and the Making of Heart of Glass
In 1976 Werner Herzog hypnotized his cast of actors and directed one of the strangest narrative films in the history of cinema, Heart of Glass. Alan Greenberg, then a young writer, aspiring filmmaker, and Herzog disciple, was on the set, and thirty-odd years later he, and Herzog, would like to tell you all about it. Hence, Every Night the Trees Disappear: Werner Herzog and the Making of “Heart of Glass” (Chicago Review Press). Greenberg had fallen under Herzog’s spell the year before, when he was sent by a film journal to interview the director. Neither cared for that process, but […]
by David Licata on May 24, 2012 -
NOVEMBER VOD CALENDAR
Now on our VOD calendar are titles available for the month of November. Some highlights: Mike Mills‘ Beginners, Miranda July‘s The Future, Evan Glodell‘s Bellflower, Mike Cahill‘s Another Earth and John Sayles‘ Amigo. And our pick of the month: 25 New Face Alma Har’el‘s impressive debut Bombay Beach. For titles from previous months go to our VOD Calendar homepage.
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 1, 2011 -
FILMMAKER FLASHBACK: SUMMER, 1996
Last year when we asked our contributors to discuss their seminal indies of the ’00s, Brandon Harris wrote of John Sayles’ Lone Star, “It was the first time I saw an American Independent narrative that seemed to deal with the ways in which different communities, even ones right on top of each other, see history in vastly divergent ways.” Maybe it’s because I’m currently working my way through Season Three of The Wire, but it strikes me that, in America, at least, the kind of multi-character, socially-critical storytelling that wasn’t exactly prevalent in 1996 when Lone Star was released is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 20, 2010
