Screening: Honeydripper

Since meeting at Williams College in the early 1970’s, life partners John Sayles and Maggie Renzi have enjoyed a remarkable personal and professional partnership. In addition to her acting roles, Renzi has served as Unit Manager and Assistant Editor on some of the director’s early films. However, since 1983’s Lianna, Renzi has served primarily in the role of Producer of Sayles’ features. The partnership is at work again on Sayles’ sixteenth film, Honeydripper, about the origins of rock and roll in the deep South.

John Sayles began as a novelist, short story writer and National Book Award nominee. As a screenwriter for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, he used his “horror haul” to finance The Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980), in which both John and Maggie performed as actors. Made with a budget of only $40,000, the film gained a national theatrical release, won the L.A. Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay and is widely credited with helping to launch the American independent feature film movement.

Sayles had a major studio release in 1983 with Baby It’s You, followed up by The Brother from Another Planet (1984). Sayles began a prolific collaboration with actors Chris Cooper and Mary McDonnell in Matewan ((1987), the story of a bloody 1920’s coal miners’ strike, and reached his largest audience yet with Eight Men Out (1988), about the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox baseball scandal. Passion Fish (1992) earned a pair of Oscar nominations, including Sayles for his screenplay and McDonnell for her performance. Sayles has found inspiration beyond our borders a number of times, including The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), filmed in Ireland and Lone Star (for which he received his second Academy Award nomination as screenwriter), filmed on the Mexico border in 1996.

Sayles is one of Hollywood’s most in-demand screenwriters, with over 50 scripts to his credit. In 1989, Sayles received the Virginia Film Festival’s Distinguished Filmmaker Award. Additional honors include the prestigious John D. MacArthur Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the John Steinbeck Award, and the John Cassavettes Award.