Podcast: Interview with John Sayles (1983)

Linda Griffiths (left) and Jane Hallaren in John Sayles' Lianna (1983).

From 1981 to 1989, I was assistant producer and co-host of the radio show On the Arts, at CJRT-FM (today Jazz 91.1) in Toronto. With the late Tom Fulton, who was the show's prime host and producer, we did a half-hour interview program where we talked to artists from all fields. In 1983, one of those guests was American independent filmmaker and screenwriter John Sayles.

When I sat down with Sayles in 1983, Lianna (starring Canadian actor and playwright Linda Griffiths) had just been released. Lianna was the second film Sayles directed, his follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut, Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980). Since 1983, Sayles has directed sixteen features, including Eight Men Out (1988), Lone Star (1996), Sunshine State (2002), and most recently Go for Sisters (2013).

– Kevin Courrier.

Here is the full interview with John Sayles as it aired on CJRT-FM in 1983.


 

 
Tom Fulton was the host and producer of On the Arts for CJRT-FM in Toronto for 23 years, beginning in 1975. 

Kevin Courrier is a freelance writer/broadcaster, film critic and author (Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Zappa, Randy Newman's American Dreams, 33 1/3 Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, Artificial Paradise: The Dark Side of The Beatles Utopian Dream). Courrier teaches part-time film courses to seniors through the LIFE Institute at Ryerson University in Toronto and other venues. His forthcoming book is Reflections in the Hall of Mirrors: American Movies and the Politics of Idealism.