Director
John Sayles
Starring
Joe Morton, Daryl Edwards, Rosanna Carter
Certificate
15
Run Time
108 mins
Release Year
1984
Country of Origin
USA
Language
English, Spanish
Format
35mm
Director of Photography: Ernest R. Dickerson
Editor: John Sayles
Produced by: Peggy Rajski, Maggie Renzi
Music: Martin Brody, Mason Daring
Screenplay by: John Sayles
Production Designer: Nora Chavooshian
Director Bio
John Sayles
P&I - Director Bio
John Sayles (b. 1950) is an American film director. He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996). His film Men with Guns (1997) was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
The Brother from Another Planet
Part of the Retrospective: The Future Is History Strand
Revolving around a mute alien in the form of a black man who crash-lands in New York City, this allegorical science fiction from John Sayles is a rarely seen gem. Touching on social issues such as immigration, racism and drug abuse, and featuring an absolutely outstanding central performance from Joe Morton, The Brother from Another Planet shares much in common with Nicholas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), both films cleverly using the context of extraterrestrial life to reflect questions of isolation and identity in terrestrial society.
35mm preservation print courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive.