The Brother from Another Planet (1984);
Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)

March 21, 2009 - 7:30 pm

Preservation funded by Anarchists' Convention

The Brother from Another Planet (1984)

Directed by John Sayles

For his fourth feature, John Sayles gave the well-worn sci-fi trope of the alien a revitalized punch with African American actor Joe Morton starring as a visitor from beyond the stars. After ditching his malfunctioning spaceship at Ellis Island, Morton's mute newcomer, known only as "The Brother," navigates the customs of Manhattan's residents while searching for a place to call home. From his initial refuge in a Harlem bar, he encounters a cross section of earthlings who read him—and the world—through a puzzling prism of race, class and ethnicity, a scenario Sayles taps for both brilliant comedy and commentary.

A-Train Films / Cinecom Pictures. Producer: Peggy Rajski, Maggie Renzi. Screenplay: John Sayles. Cinematographer: Ernest R. Dickerson. Editor: John Sayles. Cast: Joe Morton, Rosanna Carter, Ray Ramirez, Yves Rene, Peter Richardson.

35mm, 108 min.

Preservation funded by Anarchists' Convention

Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)

Directed by John Sayles

Made several years before director Lawrence Kasdan's better known The Big Chill (1983), John Sayles' directorial debut is a sometimes funny, sometimes melancholy look at the lives of a group of formerly radical friends, who gather for a reunion in New Hampshire 10 years after they were arrested in Secaucus, New Jersey while driving to a demonstration in Washington, D.C. Sayles, in what has become his trademark style, underplays the drama of these rather ordinary lives, giving us a group portrait of persons settling uncomfortably into the middle class existences they once abhorred. Lacking Chill's melodrama, what emerges is a film about a baby boomer generation growing old before its time.

Salsipuedes Productions. Producer: William Aydelot, Jeffrey Nelson. Screenplay: John Sayles. Cinematographer: Austin de Besche. Editor: John Sayles. Cast: Bruce MacDonald, Maggie Renzi, Adam LeFevre, Maggie Cousineau, Gordon Clapp.

35mm, 110 min.

Preceded by:

Preservation funded by The Andrew J. Kuehn Foundation

Parting Glances—Trailer (1986)

35mm, 2 min.

Part of:

2009 UCLA Festival of Preservation

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The Brother from Another Planet (1984); Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)

The Brother from Another Planet (1984)

Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)

Parting Glances—Trailer (1986)

Search form

The Brother from Another Planet (1984);
Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)