Meeting John Sayles

John Sayles, writer, indie director, editor, actor.

I met John Sayles, indie writer, director, and editor, last Tuesday during an intimate presscon organized by Fully Booked. What struck me first about the author was his seeming shyness.He introduced himself readily to the members of the media there (all 7 of us), but sat quietly while his partner and producer, Maggie Renzi, chatted us up very warmly. Nevertheless, the author of A Moment in the Sun, a doorstopper of a book which is to be launched this Saturday also at Fully Booked, looked around with sharp eyes that seemed to take in everything.

To be honest, this was my first presscon, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. My images of presscons are shaped by Hollywood movies and coverages of Philippine politics. But this presscon was just a small group of people seated around a table, eating and chatting. (In Philippine culture, it doesn’t seem right to chat without eating.:D) Aside from members of traditional media and writers from news websites, Fully Booked’s marketing department did think to invite a few book bloggers to help spread the word about the book and the Philippine launch.

The book's cover. Pretty, isn't it?

I thought I’d go into this presscon a little prepared by researching more about John Sayles, whose work I admittedly hadn’t read before. I found out that he had written several novels, one of them, Union Dues, nominated for the National Book Award. He'd directed seventeen films, and had also been given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Writers Guild of America. I also stumbled upon John Sayles's blog, maintained by Maggie, covering their trips through the US and the Philippines to promote both Sayles's book and movie. But I think it's the fact that his book, A Moment in the Sun, is published by McSweeney’s that I latched on to the most, because it gave him a lot of plus points on the hip scale. What surprised me, as I did my usual Googling, was that the book wasn’t the typical McSweeney’s/Dave Eggers contemporary hipster novel. Rather, A Moment in the Sun is, to quote the press release:

"a sprawling affair; touching on various landmark events in history such as the discovery of gold in the Yukon to racism in North Carolina to the explosion of a battleship in a Cuban harbor—which would lead to the war with Cuba and Spain to America’s eventual colonization of the Philippines."

Apparently, John Sayles is no stranger to the Philippines. He had been here several times before to shoot his film Amigo, which is set in the Philippines in the 1900 and is about the Philippine-American War.

It was what Sayles uncovered about the Philippine-American war that pushed him to both make Amigo and write A Moment in the Sun. During our conversation, Sayles mentioned that he had come across several documents that mentioned something called the Philippine-American war and he wondered how he had never heard about that war before. So, this pushed him to learn more about this war that, apparently, was not taught to Americans and neither was mentioned in American textbooks.

As Sayles described the primary and secondary documents he read to help him examine what was history and what was myth, I was stunned by the length and breadth of his research. He tried to procure or access all books and documents that he could in order to give him a wider and deeper understanding of the war. This includes, too, books that might not have to do directly with the Philippine-American war but were written during the same time. I had to ask him how he gained access to these books and he replied that he searched and bought some of them from online sellers, some he accessed via the Library of Congress, and others he found during his trips here to our country. So, what really impressed me is this man's intelligence and passion for history. In fact, he said that he thought of writing the book A Moment in the Sun because he realized that there was more material that he wanted to add in his film Amigo.

Then again, the thickness of his book was not entirely his own doing, according to him. He spoke about his editor at McSweeney's, who really went through his manuscript with him and even asked him to add certain portions to the book. He remarks that he appreciated this but it did surprise him, as it was more customary for editors to ask writers to make their manuscripts thinner.

Me with John Sayles. Forgive the pixelated picture. Only had my phone camera.

Sayles said that he wrote the book from different perspectives and worked to make each character's perspective seem authentic. He reflects that writing seems to be a good practice for acting, because both require getting into the head of a character and seeing only what that character sees. I asked, then, if being a director also influenced his being a writer. He mentioned something that struck me, possibly because I'm neither a writer nor director myself. He said that both are forms of storytelling, but whereas in directing, you point a camera and it shows everything to the audience, in writing, you start with a blank page. So, though both jobs require one to choose what to highlight, in directing, it is a process of taking away, but in writing, it is a process of adding. I thought that was a pretty cool insight.

Now I'm off to read his book. I have high hopes for it, not just based on its blurbs, but also because I heard from a friend that, despite its length and topic, it's very readable. And it's no small matter that I was very impressed by Sayles himself who, I have to say, seems to know my country and its history better than I do. But one other cool thing about the book, though, is that the McSweeney's site also provides additional notes on most of the book's chapters. So, things and situations unfamiliar are just a click away.

So, if you happen to be in Manila on the afternoon of June 25 and you're free, do head to the book launch of A Moment in the Sun by John Sayles. Judging from our presscon, I know there are going to be interesting conversations there.

Oh, and in case you're free on June 28, too, you can also check out the premiere screening of Amigo at Trinoma Mall, 6PM. They're going to have an exhibit of the beautiful costumes used for the movie right before the screening. Here's the trailer to whet your appetite.