Program Description
Event Details
Be one of the first to hear acclaimed filmmaker and two-time Oscar nominee John Sayles discuss his latest novel, To Save the Man, in an exclusive pre-release event. Originally crafted as a screenplay, Sayles changed this powerful story into a novel, bringing to life the haunting history of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. Sayles will be in conversation with Coronado Island Film Festival Executive Director Merridee Book, discussing the journey from screenplay to novel and offer his unique insights on the book and this incredibly powerful story and its reverberations through history.
A book-signing will follow. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-served, subject to availability. Limited preferred seating is available with purchase of To Save the Man through Warwick's bookstore. Please visit https://www.warwicks.com/sayles-2025-reserved-seat or call the store at 858-454-0347 for more information.
John Sayles is a much-celebrated film director who has made 18 movies, beginning in 1980 when his debut Return of the Secaucus Seven was released. Among the other movies he is known for directing—and often writing as well—are Lianna, Brother from Another Planet, Matewan, Eight Men Out, City of Hope, Sunshine State, Passion Fish and Lone Star, the last two of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay. He also has written screenplays for other directors, including the iconic 1980s horror movies The Howling and Alligator. Sayles also directed three of Bruce Springsteen’s most famed music videos for the songs Born in the USA, Glory Days and I’m on Fire.
As an author, Sayles has written numerous novels and short stories since 1975, when his first novel, Pride of the Bimbos, appeared. His second novel, Union Dues, was nominated for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Subsequent books include At the Anarchist’s Convention, Los Gusanos, Dillinger in Hollywood, A Moment in the Sun, and Yellow Earth. Sayles has been honored by, or been guest speaker for, such respected organizations as the American Historical Association, the Modern Language Association, and the American Studies Association. His screenplay for the film Sonora, released in 2021, won the Ariel Award, Mexico’s equivalent to the Oscar, for Best Adapted Screenplay. Sayles divides his time between Los Angeles and Connecticut.
About To Save the Man In the vein of Never Let Me Go and Killers of the Flower Moon, one of America’s greatest storytellers sheds light on an American tragedy: the Wounded Knee Massacre, and the ‘cultural genocide’ experienced by the Native American children at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School . . . In September of 1890, the academic year begins at the Carlisle School, a military-style boarding school for Indians in Pennsylvania, founded and run by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt considers himself a champion of Native Americans. His motto, “To save the man, we must kill the Indian,” is severely enforced in both classroom and dormitory: Speak only English, forget your own language and customs, learn to be white. As the young students navigate surviving the school, they begin to hear rumors of a “ghost dance” amongst the tribes of the west—a ceremonial dance aimed at restoring the Native People to power, and running the invaders off their land. As the hope and promise of the ghost dance sweeps across the Great Plains, cynical newspapers seize upon the story to whip up panic among local whites. The US government responds by deploying troops onto lands that had been granted to the Indians. It is an act that seems certain to end in slaughter. As news of these developments reaches Carlisle, each student, no matter what their tribe, must make a choice: to follow the white man’s path, or be true to their own way of life . . .
Merridee Book is the CEO + Artistic Director of the Coronado Island Film Festival. Before that, she spent 3 years as the Vice President of Development at the San Diego International Film Festival. She has held key positions in the arts and entertainment industry, and the non-profit sector for 30 years., working with bestselling authors, artists, musicians, filmmakers, major studios and record labels. These relationships culminated in producing and hosting an inspirational television program, DeeperLiving. She has held several board director positions including the Coronado School of the Arts and she currently sits on the board of the well-respected Patrons of the Prado, a non-profit that raises funds for ten beneficiaries in Balboa Park, the largest urban park in the U.S.