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Press conference Go for Sisters by John Sayles

At a press conference at the Teatro José Rubén Romero during the 11th FICM, John Sayles, accompanied by actor James Edward Olmos and producer Alejandro Springall, spoke of the possibility that detective Freddy Suárez, the main character in Go For Sisters, might live on in a television series.

“It’s a good idea,” Sayles said.  “This character could take us to many interesting areas and destinations. He has a complex past and is a very experienced detective. Today much of the work in the United States is done in television series, in two or three years or 12 episodes. Physically, Edward James Olmos is a great actor, with great movement. In this case, what I was interested in was to eliminate his movement. Suárez’s limitations and his immobility are more powerful than his movement.”

In this regard, Olmos added, “What’s wonderful about working with John is that his characters jump out of the script. It was very easy to understand Freddy Suárez. It is one of the easiest films I’ve done. I’d like to do a television series, to work about nine months in this way. I took Suárez’s visual weakness to the maximum and John let me.”

On the financing and the filming, Sayles confessed that he made it “with nearly 800,000 dollars, in 19 days and in 65 or more locations, moving equipment and actors three or four times a day. But we had the right equipment and professional actors who had no place to relax on our set and did the scenes in three or four takes. I liked the fact that the actresses didn’t know each other until the day we started filming. In this way, I could shoot their first reactions. I don’t like to rehearse a lot and if I do so, it is without dialogue. I like the shock of the new, the surprise in the performance. This is lost when you do more than 30 takes. There was a very good reaction between Lisa Gay and Yolanda Ross, and during the shoot they found their relationship as sisters. It is my pleasure to help the actors in this process.”

Reflecting on the migratory phenomenon, he said, “Migration is very interesting to me because the United States is a nation of migrants. Migrants must lose something of their lives to become U.S. citizens. The Chinese now pay 40,000 dollars to migrate to the United States. It is a huge, incredible decision for a human being to travel to an unknown world. It is a drama of our times. Each character from Go For Sisters must discover something of themselves again.  In the end, each one gets their redemption. It’s not a perfect world, but they had the opportunity to redefine themselves.”

Speaking about his future projects, he said that he is writing several scripts for television series that deal with the Civil War in Richmond, Virginia, the years of the African American civil rights struggle in Mississippi, and the story of Louis Armstrong, among other things.

Producer Alejandro Springall said that Go For Sisters will premiere in New York and Los Angeles in November and then will continue on to other cities around the United States. He said that the advertising strategy in Mexico will be different because Mexico is different, but he is confident that the presence of Edward James Olmos will help the process.  An effort is being made for the film to leave the art theater circuit to concentrate more on commercial theaters.