If he had made only one film -- say Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980), Eight Men Out (1988), City of Hope (1991), Passion Fish (1992), The Secret of Roan Inish (1995), Lone Star (1996) or Limbo (1999) -- you could swear that he was one of the world's experts on any of those subjects.
During his career as a writer-director-producer-editor, Sayles has moved from geographic regions and stories about Appalachian union strikes (Matewan) to Irish fairy tales (The Secret of Roan Inish) to Chicago baseball scandals (Eight Men Out) to the mysterious misery of Alaska (Limbo).