W alking through Harvard Square one freezing autumn night a number of years ago, I saw a crowd of people gathered by what appeared to be a film set. There on Mass. Ave. surrounded by lights and a camera crew was a moustached young man walking two then-unknown actors, John Savage and Tracy Pollan, through a scene. "Jan Egleson, the director," someone knowingly whispered. As I huddled with the group, we all stood there transfixed in the cold, as we watched the action being played out in front of us. It was the first time any of us had seen cinematic art created on the streets of Boston. Months later, when the finished film, LITTLE SISTER, was broadcast, I was amazed by what I saw. That was when I realized a filmmaker could make a movie with real heart and meaning right here in Boston.

Director Egleson loves to work with people he likes, it doesn't matter where. Here he's on the set of Boston shot BLUE DINER [Photo by Michael Naimo]

Jan Egleson didn’t set out to be a film director. Early on, he had decided to become a classically trained actor. As a seventeen year old growing up in New York, Egleson had no desire to go to college and thought he’d give acting a try, so after finishing high school, he set out for across the sea to England and the Bristol Old Vic for dramatic training. He returned to the States after two years and managed to get into Yale Drama School without an undergraduate college degree. "I wanted to go to Yale after I heard that Bob Brustein was going to model the drama department after a European Conservatory. Somehow I convinced him to admit me. It was a wonderful experience, where I had the privilege of studying with some of this country’s greatest acting teachers, including Stella Adler." After graduating from Yale, Egleson went back to New York for a time working in the city’s small, prestigious theaters, including the Publick and St. Mark’s. Egleson eventually found his way to Boston in the early 1970’s to be a part of director David Wheeler’s legendary Theater Company of Boston.

The Company was a mainstay in those heady days of Boston’s thriving theater community. Egleson points out that Wheeler’s talent at discovering new talent was remarkable. Indeed, the Company boasts a group of alumnae which include Blythe Danner, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall and Al Pacino. But even with such a group of illustrious actors, the company folded in the late 70’s due to smaller audiences and economic pressures. Around this time, Egleson began volunteering his services in the drama department at The Group School, a alternative school founded in Cambridge in the 1960’s for high-risk students. The school is also where Egleson met his future wife, former Boston casting agent and acting coach, Patty Collinge, who was also teaching there at the time. It was decided to get the students involved in creating and performing drama as a teaching tool at the school. As Egleson fondly recalls, "It was a great success. The kids loved it. We had all these talented kids from the projects performing works by Brecht and Chekhov."

At some point Egleson thought capturing some of these kids and their stories on film would be an amazing thing to do. "Here was a part of life you just didn’t see in American films" remembers Egleson. "I had always had an interest in neo-realism and the work of directors like Roberto Rossellini who depicted the lives of working-class families on screen." Feeling inspired, Egleson decided to start collecting anecdotes about the students’ lives and turn them into a film script. The culmination of that early idea resulted in a trilogy of films about working class adolescents that Egleson wrote and directed: BILLY IN THE LOWLANDS, THE DARK END OF THE STREET and several years later, LITTLE SISTER.

As Egleson recalls the experience, "With the first two films, we shot on hand-held 16mm. This was around 1978 or ‘80 and there were no other narrative fiction films being made in Boston. We had a crew of only eight people. It was the documentary community in Boston who really helped us out. There was no central resource to call up and find a crew for this kind of a project. This was in the days long before Boston had a real film community." The subject matter of the films ultimately proved to be too controversial for most broadcast outlets and Egleson had a hard time getting them aired. "But WGBH stepped in and helped us eventually get THE DARK END OF THE STREET broadcast," he says.

After their positive experience working with WGBH, Egleson and his colleagues decided in the early 1980’s to approach the PBS original drama series, American Playhouse, for help in financing LITTLE SISTER, the third film in the trilogy. They agreed to help produce and there began a long, creatively rich relationship between Egleson and American Playhouse. Egleson’s other work for series includes the critically-acclaimed mini-series ROANOAK, one of the first dramas about Native Americans to use their native language and Lanford Wilson’s play, LEMON SKY, which he adapted for the screen. That film went on to win the Special Jury Prize at Sundance in 1986. Egleson directed a total of five films for American Playhouse until the series was canceled due to lack of funding. Egleson’s disappointment over the demise of American Playhouse is still apparent, "Executive Producer Lindsay Law was very brave to stand up behind experimentation and low-en d filmmaking. It’s just incredulous to think that there is no longer an original dramatic series on American Public Television."

Jan Egleson with Natasha Estebanez on the set of BLUE DINNER [Photo by Michael Naimo]

When Egleson is asked what his background as a stage actor brings to his role as a director, he is thoughtful in his remarks: "One of the obvious things is that I like actors. I admire what they do. That’s my first bias. If you look at an actor’s job you want to understand their obstacles and objectives in telling a story. My role as a film director is to bring a performance closer to the audience... show the collisions of lives and emotions – the authentic, emotional life going on...and figuring out how to photograph it to make it real. That’s my job."

Egleson’s work for PBS got him noticed by Hollywood and the networks and he found himself in demand as a director for hire. He was soon directing a series of television pilots and movies, including GANG OF FOUR, a drama about four young high school students, and AGAINST THE LAW, about a renegade Boston attorney, which became a series on the Fox Network starring Michael O’Keefe. He also directed the feature film, A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM, starring Michael Caine and produced by Frank Perry, who had directed the classic 60’s film DAVID AND LISA. Other credits include KANE and THE ELENA HEART PENA STORY for ABC; THE LAST HIT for USA, and ORIGINAL SINS and MIND GAMES for CBS. Egleson also directed two long-form concert videos, James Taylor’s SQUIBNOCKET and THE ROAD TO YOU with Pat Metheny.

To accommodate his work schedule, Egleson has traveled back and forth between Boston and LA for a number of years now. He muses over how he’s viewed as an industry insider here in New England and as an independent director out on the West Coast. While most of his work is in LA, he has no plans to ever live there on a permanent basis. "In the world of directing, It’s very easy to get pigeonholed" says Egleson. "We all know about actors being typecast. Well, for directors, it’s just as difficult. By not living out in LA, I’m not so easily boxed in."

Asked if he has a preference for big budget projects or independent features, Egleson is clear , "I don’t prefer one or the other. I like working on projects with people I like. I’ve done satisfying work for no money and wretched work with people who didn’t care at all about a project. The distractions of the industry out in Hollywood are hard to combat...and they’re largely legitimate. It’s getting harder to make truly independent film...everything is driven by money. And that’s one of the reasons why I like working here. In the past year, I’ve come back to what I’ve always wanted to do. Working on films that have originated with me or with my fellow co-workers. It’s truly a labor of love."

Egleson is currently in post-production for his sixth feature and twenty-fifth film THE BLUE DINER, which he directed and co-wrote with producer Natatcha Estebanez. The English/Spanish bilingual film was shot entirely in and around the Boston area. (See Imagine September ‘99)

Screenwriter Rebecca Richards is a board member of Women in Film and Video/New England. A presentation based on her script Utrillo’s Mother about artist Suzanne Valadon will be performed at the Bunting Institute later this month. Richards is also co-chair of the WIFV/NE Image Awards 2000 which will take place on May 16th at the Fairmont Copley Plaza.