SxSW: Searching for Sayles
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When I got an email announcing that my favorite film director, John Sayles, would be taping an interview at SXSW, I dropped my previous plans to catch him in action. Fortunately, he proved to be as gracious in person as he was back in 2008 when I interviewed him via phone for Honeydripper. His 18th film, Go for Sisters, which debuted at SXSW, illuminates how Sayles retains his gift for depicting storylines that could never get bankrolled in Hollywood but need to be heard. In his trademark shot-on-a-shoestring guerrilla style, Sayles allows us to step into the brokenness of a childhood friendship gone awry, and to walk towards the hope for some semblance of redemption. Keep your eyes peeled for future screenings as this is another Sayles tale definitely worth catching.
Becky Garrison is a satirist/storyteller whose most recent book is Roger Williams’s Little Book of Virtues (Wipf & Stock, March 2020). Also, she edited Love, Always: Partners of Trans People on Intimacy, Challenge and Resilience (Transgress Press, 2015). Her six books include 2006’s Red and Blue God, Black and Blue Church (PW, starred review).