John Sayles' AMIGO and A Moment in the Sun out at last.




Monday, November 28, 2011

AMIGO at the Smithsonian

Okay, it was ages ago, but at the kind invitation of our friend Konrad Ng, Director of the Pacific Asian Program of the Smithsonian, we went down to DC to show AMIGO.
 Here we are at a terrific Mexican restaurant called Oyamel with, from the right, Konrad, John and me, Robert Perkinson, and our pal Catherine Park, all the way from LA. That's Robert's book and his other project is campaigning to locate the President Obama Library in Hawaii. Seems like a good idea to me.

We never got any state money for any of our films, but I am considering this trip paid for by the government. They covered our train ride from Poughkeepsie and two nights in the lovely Washington Plaza Hotel, built in  1962 and kept amazingly intact.




Our room was tiny but the price was right and the atmosphere in the lobby and bar was international.
Nicole joined us and we visited Occupy Wall St. Washington.
They had a library





and a very tidy campsite. We dropped off some used towels and floor mats to make life there more comfortable. I can mother this movement and I am proud of how it has captured the conversation in this country and around the world.
Through AMIGO we continue to meet smart, young Filipinos (and some great older ones! like Sonny Izon with whom we had a nice but hurried dinner during the show-both interrupted by power failure at the theater in the Museum of the American Indian). Teddy Gonzalves is a professor in American Studies, which discipline is now including Empire Studies.
Here is Teddy's lovely wife, Charita.
John makes anyone look small.

2 comments:

  1. Mr. Sayles, I was at the Hippodrome in Gainesville. "Amigo" was excellent, and it was great hearing you speak about your life and the showbiz. I forgot to ask you something, though: Is it true that you're writing the script for Sheila Weller's "Girls Like Us," and if so, how is that going?

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  2. I was thinking of how the Occupy movement, events, people, gatherings..whatever they are to be called ... are rectifying the spirit of hope in this country. The respect for the regular person, the working man and woman, the poor, those without wealth and power (all of which, I believe are communicated in your films and writings - both of you) is being revived in a positive way. I am hopeful that this bodes well for our country.

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