3:00 pm, $7/$5 members and kids
Q&A with producer Maggie Renzi
10-year-old Fiona is sent to live with her grandparents in a small fishing village in Donegal, Ireland. She soon learns the local legend that an ancestor of hers married a Selkie – a seal who can turn into a human. Years earlier, her baby brother washed out to sea in a cradle shaped like a boat; someone in the family believes the boy is being raised by the seals. Then Fiona catches sight of a naked little boy on the abandoned Isle of Roan Inish and takes an active role in uncovering The Secret of Roan Inish. Written by John Oswalt.
Producer Maggie Renzi will talk about the development of the film from her favorite childhood book “The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry” by Rosalie K Fry. John Sayles and Maggie Renzi have been creative partners, in their life and in their art, since the early ’70s. Beginning with their second film, Lianna (1983), Maggie assumed the role of Producer. While she continued to act, her producing responsibilities grew on each subsequent film, and she finally decided to focus just on producing after Passion Fish (1992) was released in 1992. She worked as part of a team of producers on the early films, but on the two most recent films Limbo (1999) and Sunshine State (2002), she is credited as sole producer.
In 2000, Maggie was one of the producers of Girlfight (2000), the award-winning first feature made by Karyn Kusama (who began her film career on Sayles/Renzi production teams). However, Maggie says she is not planning to produce other non-Sayles films.