After appearing in school plays and summer stock while at Williams College, Sayles embarked on a career as a fiction writer, submitting stories to magazines and supporting himself as an orderly, day laborer and meat packer. His two novels, Pride of the Bimbos (1975) and Union Dues (1977), and his short story anthology, The Anarchist's Convention (1979), received critical acclaim for their honest characterizations and authentic use of dialect, although they did not meet with financial success.
In the mid-70s, Sayles joined Roger Corman's stable of B-movie scriptwriters, penning PIRANHA (1978), THE LADY IN RED (1979) and BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980). His first film as director, RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS 7 (1980), was shot in four weeks during 1978 at a reported cost of $40,000. A witty, poignant look at a reunion of 1960s activists on the verge of adulthood, the film has been praised as a more authentic and charming portrait of the same territory explored in the more commercially successful THE BIG CHILL (1983). Almost a "talking heads" film, SECAUCUS used few sets, sparse camera movement and little action, but it won the Best Screenplay award from the Los Angeles Film Critics.
LIANNA (1983) is a daring yet subtle examination of the changes a married woman undergoes following her discovery that she is a lesbian. This low-budget film (shot for $300,000) has been both praised for its sensitivity and derided as exploitative. BABY, IT'S YOU (1983), the story of a doomed high-school romance between a college-bound Jewish girl and a working class Italian youth, was an uncharacteristically frothy departure for Sayles.
In 1983 Sayles was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant which provided him with $34,000 per year, tax-free, for five years. One of the results was THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET (1984), an unlikely story of a mute, black alien adrift in Harlem. A captivating look at a variety of issues, including racial prejudice and drug addiction, the film relies on brilliant performances from a tightly knit cast to bring to life a talk-heavy script. MATEWAN (1987) explores the personal and political dimensions of union-making and breaking in the West Virginia coal mines of the 1920s. A complex study of individual integrity and community solidarity, the film is, typically for Sayles, largely dialogue-driven -- although the director does succeed, with the help of Appalachian locations, Haskell Wexler's cinematography and Mason Daring's lively bluegrass soundtrack, in creating an evocative setting for his narrative.
EIGHT MEN OUT (1988) is an account of the 1919 Black Sox scandal that rocked the baseball world. It examines the controversy through the eyes of individual ball players. Rather than simple caricatures, each man is seen as having complex reasons for agreeing or refusing to throw the World Series. Here, Sayles relies even more on visuals: impressionistic lighting and scrupulous production design help capture this pivotal period of American history.
Sayles continued to forge his own distinctive path in the 90s. CITY OF HOPE (1991) was a somber study of life in a mid-sized contemporary American town, weaving together several storylines to create a bleakly complex picture of corruption and decay. PASSION FISH (1992), about the relationship between a paralyzed former TV soap star and her live-in nurse, earned praise for its central performances, by Mary McDonnell and Alfre Woodard.
Other directing/writing credits include THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH (1994), LONE STAR (1996), MEN WITH GUNS (1997), LIMBO (1999), SUNSHINE STATE (2002), CASA DE LOS BABYS (2003), SILVER CITY (2004), HONEYDRIPPER (2007), and THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES, JURASSIC PARK IV and A COLD CASE (all scheduled for 2008 as writer).
Nominated for Achievement in Writing - Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen 1992: PASSION FISH
Nominated for Achievement in Writing - Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen 1996: LONE STAR
2 nominations