Before there was a Sundance festival and long before independent film became a "marketing niche" there was John Sayles, making it happen with a combination of talent, shrewdness, and determination. The Essential John Sayles box set includes three groundbreaking John Sayles films - Lianna, The Return of the Secaucus 7, and The Brother From Another Planet. Seamlessly blending dramatic and comedic elements, these films cemented Sayles as one of the most talented and whimsical auteurs of the eighties.

LIANNA: Lianna and her husband Dick has been married for a few years but the mariage isn't a happy one, since Dick treats her with arrogance. One day Lianna falls in love - with Ruth, a teacher. The people who know them behave very diffently: her husband with feelings of sexual betrayal, her children with curiosity and Lianna's friends with ambivalence.

THE RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS 7: Seven former college friends, along with a few new friends, gather for a weekend reunion at a summer house in New Hampshire to reminisce about the good old days.

THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET: The Brother is an alien who has crash-landed on Earth, in New York City. While mute, strongly empathic, and able to fix things, he resembles a Black man with strange feet. His attempt to make a place for himself in Harlem is an allegory for the immigrant experience in the United States. Meanwhile, two bounty hunters from the Brother's home planet arrive and try to capture him.