Maggie Renzi

A labor leader seeking to organize the workers of a company town sets off a powderkeg of racial hostility, corruption and betrayal in this tale of the bitter clash between unionist miners and the tyrannical coal company owners in West Virginia in the 1920's.

Story revolves around Joe Gastineau, a fisherman traumatized by an accident at sea years before, singer Donna de Angelo, and her teenage daughter Noelle who come into Joe's life. When Joe's fast-talking half-brother Bobby returns to town and asks Joe for a favor, the lives of the characters are changed forever.

Grammatically challenged, "user friendly" gubernatorial candidate Dicky Pilager has just launched a rosy campaign for the citizens of the New West. But things take an unexpected turn when the taping of an environmental political ad ends up with Pilager reeling in a corpse. Enter his ferocious campaign manager, Chuck Raven who hires idealistic journalist turned rumpled private detective Danny O'Brien to investigate potential links between the corpse...

The rumbling approach of real estate developers on a sleepy island sets the leisurely paced plot in motion.

"In this moving and compassionate film Sayles presents a sympathetic, realistic portrait of Lianna, a young wife and mother who leaves her husband for another woman and embarks on a turbulent journey of self-discovery. Lianna must face the anger and confusion of her husband as well as the raised eyebrows of her community. But when her new lover also rejects her, she faces the most difficult task of all: she must learn to love herself."--Container....

"The Brother is an alien who has crash-landed on Earth, in New York City. While mute, strongly empathic, and able to fix things, he resembles a black man with strange feet. His attempt to make a place for himself in Harlem is an allegory for the immigrant experience in the United States. Meanwhile, two bounty hunters from the Brother's home planet arrive and try to capture him."--Container.

1950, rural Alabama. It's a make-or-break weekend for the Honeydripper Lounge and its owner Tyrone "Pine Top" Purvis. Deep in debt, Tyrone is desperate to lure the young cotton pickers and local Army base recruits into his juke joint and away from the rival club across the way. He lays off his regular talent and hires the famous electric guitar player, Guitar Sam, for a one night only gig. When the train arrives, Guitar Sam is no where to be found....

"Written and directed by John Sayles, this wrenching historical drama recounts the true story of a West Virginia coal town where the local miners' struggle to form a union rose to the pitch of all-out war in 1920. When Matewan's miners go on strike, organizer Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper, in his film debut), arrives to help them, uniting workers white and black, Appalachia-born and immigrant, while urging patience in the face of the coal company's violent...