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Press Release
 

November 4, 2009 

Contact:  Karen Corona
SCSD Communications
coronak@schenectady.k12.ny.us
P:  370-8100 X-137  C:   858-5610

For Immediate Release

Film-maker Sayles set to meet with high school students
New movie heading to production;
Students to communicate, learn along the way

(SCHENECTADY) - Film-maker John Sayles and his creative partner Maggie Renzi will meet with the students of Schenectady High School’s Sayles School of Fine Arts on Friday, November 6 at 10 a.m. in the school’s Black Box Theater.  Sayles, a graduate of Mont Pleasant High School, returns to Schenectady to talk to the students about his new movie which is slated to begin production at the end of this month.  He will begin an open dialogue with the high school students and teachers which will continue throughout the movie production process. 

The high school teachers and students have received the movie script, pre-production materials, shoot schedules, scene and design information, character bios and more for the movie tentatively titled “Baryo.”  Friday’s meeting will be the next step to an ongoing two-way communication process that will continue between the students and Sayles and his production team during the making of his next movie.  Throughout the production process, Sayles will be sharing updates and dailies of the film with the students who will have the opportunity to communicate regularly with the production staff and actors while they are filming in the Philippines. 

Production for the movie will begin in late November followed by filming in the Philippines in February.  The movie, set during the conflict from 1896-1898 and Philippine Revolution, will focus on military that inhabits the baryo and the events of the residents. 

Sayles’ has made more than 15 feature films.  His first film, Return of the Secausus 7, was released in 1980.  Since then Sayles’ has produced more than 15 films including Lianna, Baby, It’s You, The Brother from Another Planet, Matewan, Eight Men Out, City of Hope, Passion Fish, The Secret of Roan Irish, Lone Star, Men with Guns (Hombres Armados), Limbo, Sunshine State, Casa de los Babys, Silver City and Honeydripper (2007).  Sayles has worked with directors such as John Frankenheimer, Steven Spielberg, Jonathan Demme, Sidney Pollack, Billie August, Allison McClean, Ron Howard, Sam Raimi, Joe Dante, Rob Reiner and James Cameron. 

Sayles and Renzi met with the high school students last January when they were in town for the upstate premiere of his movie Honeydripper. 

The 4,200 square foot fine arts wing at Schenectady High School was built in 2001 and named after Sayles who was a graduate of Mont Pleasant High School and is a member of the district’s Hall of Fame.   

Last year, The John Sayles School of Fine Arts was awarded the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts National Schools of Distinction in Arts Education.

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Schenectady High School is located at 1445 The Plaza. 

Helpful Link:  http://www.johnsayles.com/

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