Before there was an Independent Film Channel or a Sundance festival and long before independent film became a "marketing niche" there was John Sayles, making it happen with a combination of talent, shrewdness, and determination. And he's kept on making it.

Lianna
Lianna and her husband Dick has been married for a few years but the mariage isn't a happy one, since Dick treats her with arrogance. One day Lianna falls in love - with Ruth, a teacher. The people who know them behave very diffently: her husband with feelings of sexual betrayal, her children with curiosity and Lianna's friends with ambivalence.


The Return Of The Secaucus 7
The "Secaucus 7" of the film's title are seven friends who, during their college days, were arrested in New Jersey on their way to a protest in Washington. The film takes place ten years after all that, as the friends gather at the home of Mike and Katie, now schoolteachers, in New Hampshire, bringing with them old problems and new: Maura has left Jeff and seeks consolation with his best friend, J.T.; J.T., arguably the least successful of the friends, finally gets the courage to move to L.A. to start his career as a songwriter; Irene brings her new boyfriend along, hoping he'll like and be liked by her friends, expecting them to challenge him for his more-conservative politics; and more. This is the film that inspired "The Big Chill."


The Brother From Another Planet
The Brother is an alien who has crash-landed on Earth, in New York City. While mute, strongly empathic, and able to fix things, he resembles a Black man with strange feet. His attempt to make a place for himself in Harlem is an allegory for the immigrant experience in the United States. Meanwhile, two bounty hunters from the Brother's home planet arrive and try to capture him.


• Stars: Linda Griffiths, Jane Hallaren, Jon DeVries, Jo Henderson, Jessica MacDonald, Bruce MacDonald, Maggie Renzi, Adam LeFevre, Maggie Cousineau, Gordon Clapp, Joe Morton, Rosanna Carter, Ray Ramirez, Yves Rene, Peter Richardson