Incidentally, Strathairn's regular collaborator, indie filmmaker John Sayles, is one of three credited screenwriters.

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Independent filmmaker and two-time Oscar nominee John Sayles observes that recent Oscars have also lacked star power.

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After a gun battle recreated in the 1987 John Sayles film "Matewan, " the mayor, two miners, a bystander and three agents lay dead.

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The festival's gala section features new works from Bernardo Bertolucci, John Sayles, Notting Hill's Roger Michell and Amores Perros director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

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The writer, director, and editor, John Sayles, lays out the action so that every class and ethnic group participates in the corruption and the possible redemption of fictional Hudson City, New Jersey.

NEWYORKER: City of Hope

Eighteen years ago, John Sayles might have boiled down this back-to-basics portrait of a paralyzed, bitter white soap star (Mary McDonnell) and her strong-willed black caretaker (Alfre Woodard) into a twenty-page short story.

NEWYORKER: Passion Fish

Director John Sayles revealed that Dickie was modelled on Bush Junior in an interview with The New York Times, saying: ''Dickie is very much based on George Bush when he was running for governor the first time.

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But the pleasure of "Birders, " elegantly crafted by Jeffrey Kimball, a first-time director and longtime local birder, who previously worked as a music supervisor on films by the likes of Steven Soderbergh, Gus Van Sant and John Sayles, is that the ultimate star is Central Park.

WSJ: Park Filmmakers Wing It