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Success on the fringes of Hollywood
John Sayles on the art of independent filmmaking
by Rachel O'Malley
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 In the age of the summer blockbuster and the ever-increasing reach of Hollywood celebrity, you would think John Sayles and his brand of low-key, unassuming, independent filmmaking would fail to command the big screen. Yet John, often dubbed one of the founding fathers of the independent film industry, continues to enhance his reputation for creating quality films with each new premier. His most heralded movies -- Lone Star, The Secret of Roan Inish and Passion Fish -- are leisurely-paced, culturally-rich films peopled with actors whose faces we recognize, but whose names we don’t necessarily know.
Financing films himself (he often works as a behind-the-scenes Hollywood script doctor in order to pay the bills for his own movies) and working with his long-time partner and producer, Maggie Renzi, John enjoys the freedom to tell stories that really matter to him -- without being told who to cast, what to cut and what to throw in to "wow" audiences. John does things differently, and more importantly (although not necessarily to him), he succeeds.
Having worked as a screenwriter, director, editor, and even an actor (he's Howie in Return of the Seacaucus 7, Ring Lardner in Eight Men Out and an FBI agent in Malcolm X), John broke into the entertainment business in 1975 when he published his first novel, Pride of the Bimbos. Two years later, his screenplay Pirahna hit the big screen. A glance at his current filmography indicates that he hasn't taken much of a break since.
 Nominated for an Oscar in 1993 for Passion Fish and in 1997 for Lone Star, both for best screenplay intended directly for the screen, John's work has also received nominations from the Golden Globe Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards, Los Angeles Critics Association Awards, San Sebastian Internationl Film Festival, Tokyo International Film Festival and others. Most recently, his film Limbo, the story of a family-like trio stuck on a island in the Alaskan wilds, was nominated for the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
The secret to his success? In lieu of explosions, household-name stars, and traditional test audiences, the main component in John's films is a story -- a concept that, oddly enough, is too often overlooked in filmmaking. John chooses to convey politically, culturally and emotionally complex tales to an audience whose intelligence he refuses to underestimate. The added hook? His are stories -- be they murder mysteries or fairy tales -- you want to hear.
John does about 200 plus interviews for each new movie, and when he spoke with ZineZone during the Limbo junket, it was the end of a long day in front of a firing squad of journalists. Over six feet tall, tan and athletic-looking, John's physique seems better suited to a sailboat or a hiking trail than a stuffy hotel room, but he remained enthusiastic, sincere, assured -- qualities that, not surprisingly, can be used to describe his work as well.
Next page | Which cowboy falls off the horse?
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In this video clip, meet actor, director, writer, editor and overall independent filmmaking legend, John Sayles.
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John Sayles
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