Indie filmmaker Nancy Savoca will be showing her critically acclaimed “Household Saints” on April 19 at the Michigan Theater at 6:30 p.m.
After her film, Savoca, who directed the film, and her husband Rich Guay, who co-wrote the screenplay, will hold a question and answer session.
“I am thrilled to be going and sharing the movie because we are celebrating this movie basically that was lost and now is found,” Savoca said. “We are celebrating with Ann Arbor, and we are thrilled.”
“Household Saints” is a star-studded 1993 indie gem hailed by many critics for its uniqueness and multifaceted themes, still pertinent and of interest to new audiences today. It includes Vincent D’Onofiro, Tracey Ulman, Lily Taylor, and Living Theater legend Judith Malina.
The film is about a compelling Italian-American community that struggles with religion, family and relationships and features elements of comedy, tragedy and surrealism. A main character, Theresa, played by Lily Taylor, is convinced she has a calling from God to fulfill.
The screenplay co-written by Savoca and Guay was adopted from Francine Prose’s book.
“People are coming,” Savoca said. “And I’m hearing from audiences, and they are relating to this film in such interesting ways. Traditional ways that you would imagine, like they relate to the 1950s, the Catholicism, Catholic School education and wanting to be a nun or a priest.”
But there are also truly independent themes.
“And then there’s the newer generation that’s relating to it on a whole other level, as Theresa is an outsider,” Savoca said. “Theresa is someone who wants to live her identity. She has a calling and wants to follow it, regardless of what other people think. So, it’s kind of cool to see Francine’s (Prose) story and that we turn it into a film. There all these different ways that you can approach it. People are coming, it’s lovely.”
The film is still highly original in its style and timeless in its storytelling.
“The film is 30 years old,” Savoca said. “And we are like, 30 years is a long time, and this is a new audience, you know. I’m grateful that there is still an audience that is appreciating off-the-beaten-path stories, which is what the story of independent film is, off the beaten track, unusual stories, not what you would imagine. You know, it’s not your typical movie. So that’s why it’s really fun to see a new audience enjoy it.”
For years, Savoca thought that the film had disappeared, and many people worked tirelessly to get a good print and even the legal rights of the film. It was first released in theaters with a great run, then went to VHS for a home view. But it did not make the transfer to DVD like many films. A loyal fan uploaded on YouTube. But good prints and legal rights vanished.
This April is the Michigan Theater screening and a celebration of the recovery of the film and its rights.
“We thought we had no movie left — really sad,” Savoca said. “You know we talk about, and how it’s horrible, that many silent films are no longer available to see. All we had of Household Saints was a VHS copy that sooner or later was going to rip.”
But in the end, there is a happy ending, because they were able to salvage the film.
“So we did recover everything,” said Savoca. “…We did recover it. Rich (Guay) spent a couple of years finding the physical elements of the film. And then we spent about three years tracking down the legal rights to it. And we now have the legal rights to the movie and Milestone Films agreed to distribute and fund the restoration because that is a very expensive thing to do.”
Also in April, Savoca’s films “True Love” (1989) and “Dogfight” (1991) will be restored and available to the public.
“‘True Love’ and ‘Dogfight’ are being released and restored April 24,” Savaoca said. “‘Households Saints’ will be soon after. So all three will be out and available.”
There is also going to be a DVD extra accompanying “Household Saints.”
“A DVD extra that is going to be on the ‘Household Saints’ DVD is a one-hour documentary that my daughter directed because she is a filmmaker,” Savoca said. “And what I love about that story is when you talk about filmmaking, this is what I enjoy talking about. I was pregnant with her when I did ‘Household Saints,’ really pregnant, like a beached whale pregnant. And so she always heard the story, we used to call her the ‘Household Saints’ baby. And it turns out she had never seen the film. Now she had seen my other films growing up.
She’s 31 now. And she had never seen ‘Household Saints.’ She had seen the others. And when we found our elements for ‘Household Saints’ we also found interview footage and we found some home movies that my sister had taken of the production down where we shot in North Carolina. And all of this material. And we thought we should probably put this together for someone to do a little reel for a DVD extra. And we said wait a minute let my daughter put this together because she’s a filmmaker. And this is her story actually. So that’s what we did. So there is a beautiful little one-hour doc called ‘The Many Miracles of Household Saints.’ And it talked about all the things that came out of that movie, including her.”
For Savoca, ethnicity and culture are often a big part of her films. which in part is due to her own background. Savoca considers herself “tri-cultural”: American, Sicilian, and Argentinian.
“Bi-cultural, tricultural if you say American, and I am really aware of the nuances and differences in each of my cultures and I belong to all of them,” Savoca said. “And so anybody’s culture interests me. It doesn’t have to be people of my background. It’s funny because the three films that are being restored now making the rounds, two of the three are Italian-American. But in fact, I’m not really Italian American, my family immigrated here, but I am first generation. So a lot of my Italian-American friends that I grew up with had a very different upbringing than I did.”
Two of the films being restored include Italian-American themes, both “Household Saints” and “True Love.” But Savoca deals with often deals with a wide array of cultures in her films, and loves to celebrate all those cultures.
“I’m curious about the Italian-American experience, I’m curious about Asian-Americans, I’m curious about Jewish-Americans, and curious about African-Americans and Puerto Rican Americans,” said Savoca. “To me when you’re hyphenated, it is very interesting to me about how you weave those things together. It’s all you.”
Her parents who immigrated from Sicily and Argentina have had a large influence on her as well.
“Also with my parents as immigrants who did not speak English, I was the translator,” Savoca said. “So when we watched movies in the living room on the TV, I had to tell them everything that was going on. But they got the gist of everything. They would ask me and I would have to translate. So my parents were watching American films not really grasping the language.”
Cinema is part of the visual experience where sometimes no words are even required, according to Savoca.
“I remember once we were filming a movie that I did called ‘Dirt’ and we filmed it in El Salvador, and my father came down with us,” Savoca said. “My Dad is Sicilian. He came down to be with us. We sat in a hotel room in San Salvadore and me and him, we watched an Iranian movie with no subtitles. And we were like roaring with this movie and like into it with the characters and stuff. And I still to this day do not know the title of the movie. I couldn’t see the ending. I had to leave and go to work. It kinda tells you that the cinematic experience doesn’t even need words.”
Savoca also discussed how much she loves Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan acquired the Nancy Savoca archives in 2016 and Savoca taught at the University of Michigan last semester.
“Phil Hallman is my hero,” Savoca said. “He has such a vision for the (Nancy Savoca) archives. One of the things that got me really excited about giving the archives to U-M was that they are living. People actually use them. People can go and look at them, investigate, or be inspired, or do a study — it’s exciting to me what they are trying to do there. They are not sitting in a basement gathering dust. And I’m so excited about that.”
Phil Hallman works with the U-M archives.
Savoca is the first female filmmaker to join the University of Michigan archives, which also include filmmaker greats: Orson Welles, Robert Altman, Alan Rudolph, John John Sayles and Jonathan Demme.
Demme was also the executive producer of “Household Saints” and John Sayles was a major investor of “True Love.”
“Ann Arbor holds a special place in my heart because they have my archives there and the archives of Jonathan Demme and John Sayles, who are my mentors,” Savoca said. “So when Ann Arbor calls, I’m there.”
The Michigan Theater. 603 E Liberty St, Ann Arbor. April 19 at 6:30 p.m.
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Donna Marie Iadipaolo is a writer, journalist, and State of Michigan certified teacher, since 1990. She has written for national publications like The Village Voice, Ear Magazine of New Music, Insurance & Technology, and TheStreet.
She is now writing locally for many publications, including Current Magazine, Ann Arbor Family, and the Ann Arbor Independent. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she graduated with an honors bachelor’s degree and three teacher certificate majors: mathematics, social sciences, English. She also earned three graduate degrees in Master of Science, Master of Arts, and Education Specialist Degree.
