This film, which screened for Directors' Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival in 1987, dramatizes the life and strikes of coal miners in the early 20th century in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia. When the coal miners set up a union and go on a strike to fight against unfair labor conditions, the management hires new workers, including African American laborers and Italian immigrant workers, to break up the union. Joe Kenehan, an organizer for the United Mine Workers, arrives in Matewan to help the miners. He helps ease the escalating conflict between the old and new miners, and the new workers finally change their minds and help promote the cause of the union. As their efforts to break up the union end in vain, the company hires private detectives who hold grudges against the miners. The film is based on a true story that happened in Mingo, Virginia in May 1920. While Joe Kenehan is a fictional character, others in the film are based on actual people. Sayles is one of the most socially active, independent film directors in America, and is one of his most important works, showing the director’s viewpoint and characteristic.

1988 Academy Awards
1987 Cannes Film Festival

John SAYLES

Beginning with ///Return of the Secaucus 7/// (1979) the films of John Sayles have been integral to the development of Independent Film in the United States. His films depict a world very different from the version offered by Hollywood. Sayles career as a storyteller began with his fiction which brought Sayles to the attention of legendary Director/Producer Roger Corman. One of his films ///Passion Fish/// (1992) won Sayles his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Sayles continues to work for hire on features and television series.