Legendary director-writer John Sayles is making three appearances (one tonight, two tomorrow) during a tribute at Cinefamily. “A Weekend With John Sayles” rundown: Brother From Another Planet and Piranha (Friday, 2.19, 7:30pm); Master Filmmaking Class w/ Sayles + City of Hope at (Saturday, 2.20, 3pm); Lianna & Baby, It’s You (Saturday, 2.20, 7:30 pm). We did a phoner two or three days ago — sorry for not posting sooner.

Excerpt from Sayles phoner: “It’s not easy to get something made, even for longform television. What you hear a lot today is ‘that’s a nice idea but it’s not noisy enough.’ [They’re looking for] vampires, murderers, kinky sex, whatever. But they are interested in staff that features are not interested in. Hollywood is a buisiness, and to a certain extent it’s about what can the Hollywood industry do that other countries can’t do? You have to look at what sells well overseas. What can you do that’s going to be spectacular enough to get people out of their houses. That’s what Hollywood is trying to figure out.”