28-09-1950
Birthday
Libra
Zodiac Sign
-
Genres
49
Total Films
Also known as (male)
Schenectady, New York, USA
Place of Birth
28-09-1950
Birthday
Libra
Zodiac Sign
-
Genres
49
Total Films
-
Also Known As (male)
Schenectady, New York, USA
Place of Birth
actor
49 Works
producer
7 Works
director
90 Works
writer
43 Works
other
20 Works
John Sayles and Gregory Nava
“In this conversation, recorded for the Criterion Collection in Los Angeles in 2023, filmmaker Gregory Nava talks with director John Sayles about the development and production of Lone Star and Sayle’s career in independent cinema.”Year:
2024
1982: Greatest Geek Year Ever!
A remarkable new epic documentary spotlighting the pop culture milestones of 1982 including notable motion pictures, TV, music and video games of that seminal year.Year:
2022
Algren
Algren will spotlight the hard-knock life and authentic creative legacy of one of the most underrated writers of the twentieth century, Nelson Algren. Algren's brutally honest portrayal of the American underclass and his hard-nosed lifestyle became his pathway to compassion. Through interviews with Algren contemporaries, experts, and "literary soulmates," as well as through the photography of Algren's friends, Art Shay and Stephen Deutch, the film will tell his story. It will celebrate his tremendous contribution to and influence on American letters, and push Algren, champion of the marginalized, out from the margins.Year:
2021
Corona Film Club
Documentary about filmmaker and film lover Stig Björkman during the pandemic year of 2020 when he stay in touch with his friends over his laptop.Year:
2021
Texas Red
Part of the 12 Western feature films to be made in 12 months during 2020, this film tells the story of Texas Red, an African-American man who was hunted by hundreds through the Winter wilderness of Mississippi.Year:
2021
Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi
The greatest cult horror and science fiction films of all-time are studied in vivid detail in the second volume of Time Warp. Includes groundbreaking classics like "Night of the Living Dead," and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," and sci-fi gems such as "Blade Runner," and "A Clockwork Orange."Year:
2020
Them That Work
Documentary about the impact left by John Sayles’ 1987 film Matewan, about a shooting between company gun thugs and union organizers in Southern West Virginia. Along with a lasting legacy of support for union rights, the film inspired many West Virginians to become filmmakers and introduced the world to many great actors.Year:
2019
The Umbrella
A man uses an imaginary umbrella to protect himself against against life; until he is convinced to use a real umbrella.Year:
2016
The Third Man: A Filmmaker's Influence
Martin Scorsese and other contemporary filmmakers reveal the impact The Third Man had on their careers and why the film is still so relevant today.Year:
2015
That Guy Dick Miller
Documentary about veteran character actor Dick Miller, whose career in and outside of Hollywood has spanned almost 200 films across six decades, featuring a diverse range of interviews with directors, co-stars, and contemporaries.Year:
2014
The Normals
With a debt collector hot on his trail, Harvard graduate Billy Schine enrolls in a clinical drug trial to make a quick buck. Carted out of New York City in a shuttle full of oddball characters, Billy and the rest of the guinea pigs, affectionately referred to as "Normals," camp out at hidden research facility. When not popping pills, being tagged, drained of blood, prodded, poked and color-coded, they are telling horror stories of previous tests or generally getting on each other's nerves. As the test drags on, just being there starts to take its toll, and tensions build until the dam finally bursts. Billy realizes that there is no such thing as "normal."Year:
2012
Casting By
This essential new documentary pays tribute to the legacy of the late, legendary casting director Marion Dougherty and shines a light on one of the most overlooked and least understood crafts in filmmaking.Year:
2012
Corman's World
A chronicle of the long career of American filmmaker Roger Corman, the most tenacious and ingenious low-budget producer and director in the US film industry, a pioneer of independent filmmaking and discoverer of new talent.Year:
2011
Great Directors
Features conversations with ten of the world's greatest living directors: Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Liliana Cavani, Stephen Frears, Agnes Varda, Ken Loach, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater and John Sayles. The film documents Ismailos' voyage of discovering the creative personalities behind the camera.Year:
2009
In the Electric Mist
Lt. Dave Robicheaux, a detective in New Iberia, Louisiana, is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni, who is co-producer of a Civil War film. At the same time, after Elrod Sykes, the star of the film, reports finding another corpse in the Atchafalaya Swamp near the movie set, Robicheaux starts another investigation, believing the corpse to be the remains of a black man who he saw being murdered 35 years before.Year:
2009
The Toe Tactic
Mona is nearly overwhelmed by grief and depression. After her father's death, she's cut herself off: leaving teaching - she now temps as an office assistant, ignoring her mother's calls, talking to herself in mirrors, and rejecting any offered intimacy. She's watched over by comic extraterrestrial beings whom we see as cartoon squiggles. They ensure that random acts bring her connections - with a neighbor boy, his mother, and his surreptitious piano teacher (the lad wants to surprise his mom). She also meets an elevator operator in the building where she temps for Ms. Hadaway, a widow with perfect diction. Can Mona take a few steps on the road to expressing emotion?Year:
2009
Obscene
A look at the life and work of American publisher Barney Rosset, who struggled to bring controversial works like "Tropic of Cancer" and "Naked Lunch" to publication.Year:
2008
Alligator Author
A documentary looking back on the making of the 1980 film 'Alligator', featuring an interview with screenwriter John Sayles.Year:
2007
Honeydripper
In 1950s Alabama, the owner of the Honeydripper juke joint finds his business dropping off and against his better judgment, hires a young electric guitarist in a last ditch effort to draw crowds during harvest time.Year:
2007
Edge of Outside
An hour-long documentary designed to celebrate the spirit of the independent filmmaker from D.W. Griffith to Quentin Tarantino. Interview footage and film clips are blended together to form a chronological approach to the subject matter.Year:
2006
Howard Zinn: Voices of a People's History of the United States
An impressive roster of celebrities -- including Lili Taylor, Paul Robeson, Sarah Jones, Brian Jones, John Sayles and Wallace Shawn -- lend their voices to this performance of readings inspired by Howard Zinn's best-selling book. Segments bring to life Tecumseh's speech to the Osages, Frederick Douglass' thoughts about July 4 and Paul Robeson's Unread Statement before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.Year:
2006
Tell Them Who You Are
The son of acclaimed cinematographer Haskell Wexler confronts his complex father by turning the camera on him. What results is a portrait of a difficult genius and a son's path out of the shadow of a famous father.Year:
2004
Unleashing the Beast: Making ‘The Howling’
Documentary featuring director Joe Dante, screenwriter John Sayles, producer Mike Finnell, stars Dee Wallace Stone, Dick Miller, Robert Picardo, and Belinda Balaski.Year:
2003
Sunshine State
A woman and her new husband returns to her hometown roots in coastal northern Florida, and must deal with family, business, and encroaching real estate development.Year:
2002
When It Was a Game 3
In this third entry of the ongoing HBO documentary series celebrating America's favorite pastime, the focus is on the 1960s, when Major League Baseball was slowly evolving from pure sport to big-bucks entertainment. Using footage of players and fans, the film covers the Yankees' ascension to greatness, the western expansion of both leagues, the increasing inclusion of black players and the rise of free agency.Year:
2000
Girlfight
Diana Guzman begins to train as a boxer and achieves impressive success, blazing new trails for female boxers, all while keeping it a secret from her father.Year:
2000
A Constant Forge
One of the great mavericks of cinema, John Cassavetes has earned a reputation as the godfather of American independent movies. The actor-turned-filmmaker invented a realist style of unadorned narrative films heavily influenced by documentaries. This in-depth analysis of Cassavetes' life and work features interviews with key collaborators and ensemble regulars, and explores the making of classics like "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie," "Opening Night" and "A Woman Under the Influence."Year:
2000
Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western
Interviews and film clips re-create the glorious history of the American western.Year:
1997
Gridlock'd
After a friend overdoses, Spoon and Stretch decide to kick their drug habits and attempt to enroll in a government detox program. Their efforts are hampered by seemingly endless red tape, as they are shuffled from one office to another while being chased by drug dealers and the police.Year:
1997
My Life's in Turnaround
Two Manhattan slackers want to make a movie about their lives. One drives a cab, the other tends bar; neither has a clue how to make a movie. Things look up when real-life actors Phoebe Cates and Martha Plimpton agree to star in the project.Year:
1994
Matinee
A showman introduces a small coastal town to a unique movie experience and capitalizes on the Cuban Missile crisis hysteria with a kitschy horror extravaganza combining film effects, stage props and actors in rubber suits in this salute to the B-movie.Year:
1993
Passion Fish
After an accident leaves her a paraplegic, a former soap opera star struggles to recover both emotionally and mentally, until she meets her newest nurse, who has struggles of her own.Year:
1992
Malcolm X
A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.Year:
1992
Straight Talk
Honest and straightforward small-town Shirlee Kenyon chucks her boyfriend and heads for Chicago. Accidentally having to host a radio problem phone-in show, it is clear she is a natural and is hired on the spot. But the station insists she call herself Doctor, and as her popularity grows a local reporter starts digging for the truth. Problem is, the more he is around her the more he fancies her.Year:
1992
City of Hope
This gritty inner-city film follows various people living in a troubled New Jersey setting, most notably Nick Rinaldi, a disillusioned contractor who has been helped along his whole life by his wealthy father. Other characters in this ensemble drama about urban conflict and corruption include Asteroid , an unstable homeless person, and Wynn, an idealistic young politician.Year:
1991
Little Vegas
Quirky serio-comedy about the unusual residents of a desert trailer park that mobsters want to turn into a gambling mecca.Year:
1990
La fine della notte
Year:
1989
Untamagiru
A magical realist story of the legendary Okinawan hero Untamagiru participating in efforts to form an independent Okinawa before the island was returned to Japan in 1972.Year:
1989
Eight Men Out
Buck Weaver and Hap Felsch are young idealistic players on the Chicago White Sox, a pennant-winning team owned by Charles Comiskey - a penny-pinching, hands-on manager who underpays his players and treats them with disdain. And when gamblers and hustlers discover that Comiskey's demoralized players are ripe for a money-making scheme, one by one the team members agree to throw the World Series. But when the White Sox are defeated, a couple of sports writers smell a fix and a national scandal explodes, ripping the cover off America's favorite pastime.Year:
1988
Matewan
Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan's vested interests so that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.Year:
1987
Unnatural Causes
Frank Coleman is a Vietnam veteran dying from cancer brought on by exposure to the defoliant chemical Agent Orange which he turns to Maude DeVictor, a Veterans Administration benefits counselor who teams up with Coleman to fight a lopsided batted against the bureaucratic system for its cover up of the possible dangers of Agent Orange.Year:
1986
Something Wild
A free-spirited woman "kidnaps" a yuppie for a weekend of adventure. But the fun quickly takes a dangerous turn when her ex-con husband shows up.Year:
1986
Hard Choices
A teenaged boy goes for a ride with his brother and the brother's friends, who proceed to rob a store and murder the clerk. They are caught and, despite the young boy's protestations, he is convicted of murder and sent to prison. A female social worker assigned to the boy's case not only believes him, but begins to fall in love with him, and determines to either help him prove his innocence or escape.Year:
1985
The Brother from Another Planet
An alien slave crash-lands in New York City while being pursued by two Men in Black bounty hunters. His attempt to find a place for himself on Earth parallels that of the immigrant experience.Year:
1984
The Howling
After a bizarre and near fatal encounter with a serial killer, a newswoman is sent to a rehabilitation center whose inhabitants may not be what they seem.Year:
1981
Return of the Secaucus Seven
Seven former college friends, along with a few new friends, gather for a weekend reunion at a summer house in New Hampshire to reminisce about the good old days, when they got arrested on the way to a protest in Washington, D.C.Year:
1980
Piranha
When flesh-eating piranhas are accidently released into a summer resort's rivers, the guests become their next meal.Year:
1978
Them That Work
John Sayles came to West Virginia to make his film MATEWAN, about the gun fight over labor in the coal fields. The film has had a lasting impact on locals regarding the subject and the filming's influence on people's lives.Year:
-
Lianna
Lianna's life is a succession of domestic errands and boring faculty parties, however her heaviest cross to bear is dealing with her waning marriage to Dick. In order to find intellectual stimulus, Lianna takes a college extension child-psychology course taught by Ruth. When Lianna catches Dick having an affair with a young coed, she finds comfort and eventually true love in the arms of Ruth. However, this comes with a price as everything in her life is turned upside down.Year:
1983
