Sayles on Sayles (Directors on Directors)

If the U.S. were to boast one great independent film director, he would be John Sayles. Since 1979, more than 10 years before the new wave of Indie pictures challenged the conventions of Hollywood moviemaking, Sayles has been creating magnificent and utterly original films. Even more remarkably, they differ radically from one another. Who could guess that the director of The Return of the Secaucus Seven and Baby It's You could turn around and make The Brother from Another Planet, that the man behind the fabulous Secret of Roan Inish was capable also of the socially conscious Matewan, City of Hope, and Lone Star?

This interview book, another in Faber and Faber's remarkable series devoted to filmmakers on their work, is published to coincide with the release of Men with Guns, Sayles's film for 1998. The director speaks about the way he works ("I wrote The Brother from Another Planet in about a week."), the themes of his films ("There is a fantasy children's movie in The Secret of Roan Inish, but finally there is also this realistic core to it."), and his political sensibilities ("One of the ideas I was trying to get at in Lone Star is that race is an illusion but culture is very real."). Perhaps because he is such a fine writer, Sayles proves an amazingly articulate speaker. Fans of the director, as well as those discovering Sayles for the first time, will be delighted by the director's personal insights and stories.