Lianna

After helping to kick-start the independent film movement in America with The Return of the Secaucus Seven, John Sayles wrote, directed, and edited his second feature, about a woman who finds herself staring life over after coming out of the closet as a lesbian. Lianna (Linda Griffiths) is a woman ...more

As anyone who's read or seen The Celluloid Closet knows, gay themes and gay characters have a history as old as filmmaking itself. John Sayles' Lianna isn't the first to document the coming-out experience, but it's one of the first to take it as its sole subject. Perhaps just as important is the inclusion of an element that's now taken for granted in gay-themed films: joy. While Sayles doesn't shy away from the difficulties faced by his protagonist upon revealing her sexual orientation, he first ...more