John Sayles is as much a godfather of contemporary American indie cinema as John Cassavetes. His latest film, Go For Sisters, cleverly blends a character study with genre elements.
One of the pioneers of American independent cinema, John Sayles is a fascinating figure to reflect upon - as well as to refer to, as the industry barrels forward with innovations coming at a breathtaking pace. Famously financing his own films (at times) with the proceeds from his for-hire Hollywood script doctoring gigs, Sayles has turned out some of the most seminal indies of the modern era (Lone Star, Passion Fish) without ever conceding to industry pressures or demands.
His latest film, Go For Sisters, is no exception. Working cleverly within the buddy road movie genre (with plenty of detective story thrown in, for good measure), Go For Sisters finds Sayles exploiting the commercial and entertaining aspects of established Hollywood genres toward his own ends, enabling him to capture the audiences attention so that he may take them deep into a much more nuanced and intimate story. Go For Sisters is ostensibly a mystery about two old friends, Bernice (LisaGay Hamilton) and Fontayne (Yolanda Ross), who enlist the help of an ex-cop (Edward James Olmos) to go down to Mexico with them so that he may help them find Bernices kidnapped son.
While the film works as a mystery, probing the criminal element of various Mexican locales with patient observation, its ultimately a character study about Bernice and Fontayne, two old friends who had lost touch over the years, only to be reunited by the fact that Fontayne, a recent parolee, has been given Bernice as her parole officer.
The films interplay between genre elements and elements more indicative of a quiet indie drama makes for fascinating viewing, and showcases Sayless mastery of quite varied forms of storytelling, disparate forms he carefully unites into a cohesive whole. I spoke with Sayles recently about the film.
Tribeca: I think titles get discussed all too infrequently, and I really enjoyed the title of this film. What do you think makes for a good title?
John Sayles: Every once in a while you get lucky and you get a great title, one thats kind of iconic. I think Sex, Lies and Videotape - I mean, people wanted to see that movie knowing nothing about it, its a great title. I think Lone Star is a great title. Go For Sisters is a phrase that, when I was a kid, people were so tight that you said they could go for sisters or go for brothers. Its actually not a great title in some ways, because when people hear it for the first time, sometimes they ask, "So are they sisters who are gofers?" Aurally, it doesnt always break down to make sense, but once you know the movie, it makes total sense.
Ive two or three times made movies where we didnt have a title while we were making the movie - Passion Fish, Brother From Another Planet - and I actually had a contest, in the case of Passion Fish, for what the title of the film should be among the crew and cast. Titles are tough. All through this film I was trying to think of a better title, but I never did. I like the title, but its not iconic.
You always have to be aware of what people are expecting, and then you can either subvert it or satisfy it, and move on to the next thing.
Tribeca: You mention that some people might be confused when they hear the title at first, and it makes me think about something peripherally related - your storytelling is one where theres a lot of respect for the audience, you dont beat the audience over the head with what everything means, directly. How do you approach dealing with the audience?
John Sayles: Well, some of it is using genre rather than totally surrendering to genre. If youre making a pure genre film you really have to surrender to all its rules and give the payoff when its expected, but if youre using genre you can play with the structure and explore something thats more experiential than plot-driven. There is a plot in Go For Sisters and its important, but its really about three people looking for redemption. Its a psychological and spiritual journey as much as a physical journey. But it is a road movie about getting someone out of a tough situation, so thats the genre aspect.
Certainly, Lone Star has some genre elements to it, some familiar Western elements. Matewan is structured very much like a Western, even though its a labor film. You just dont want it to be the kind of corporate genre experience where everyone knows where its leading, and its all about the special effects, or seeing an actor whos hot at the moment doing that weve seen many times before.
Tribeca: Here, you use genre as a way in to the audiences mind - its like genre is your way in to get us hooked, but its really just the frame upon which the real story is hung.
John Sayles: I think its important to have structure. Even the best of the Marx brothers movies had some kind of structure - it was important for them to have structure so they could be anarchic, so they could have something to be anarchic against. Some of it is about having a decent structure that moves you forward, so you know what happens next, either emotionally or in plot terms. Once that is in place, then you really think about, whats the character arc? How many characters can we handle? A certain amount of it is the way I use music.
Ive worked with Mason Dering on seventeen of my eighteen features, and one thing he does is, he makes suggestive music, but not music that tells you how to feel. Its there to bring the acting out, not cover over the acting. Thats something that people who only see mainstream movies are a little unsettled by - the lack of music, or the way music is used. Its experiential. So much of acting, of storytelling, is about decisions the characters make - is there a right thing to do?
Something that I think
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
John Sayles is as much a godfather of contemporary American indie cinema as John Cassavetes. His latest film, Go For Sisters, cleverly blends a character study with genre elements. 
