Director's Cut of Mikey Madison's Screen Debut LIZA, LIZA, SKIES ARE GREY Now Available

Two-Time Academy Award® Winner Terry Sanders has released for the first time the Director’s Cut of “Liza, Liza Skies Are Grey,” his 2017 feature starring Mikey Madison in the title role in her screen debut at age 15. Madison has been receiving rave reviews for her performance in Sean Baker’s Cannes Film Festival Palme D’or winner “Anora” and has also been nominated for an Oscar® for Best Actress. The Director’s Cut of “Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey” is now available worldwide to rent or own on Vimeo on Demand here. 

In the turbulent summer of 1966, a year of THE DRAFT and the war in Vietnam, Civil Rights confrontations and the beginnings of the Sexual Revolution, and living in the shadow of the Bomb—15-year-old Liza, and 16-year-old boyfriend Brett, set off on an eventful four-day motorcycle trip up the coast of California from Pacific Palisades to Monterey and Big Sur. Brett will soon be going east and Liza, unsure of the future, has decided to be Brett’s “first girl.” Almost everything gets in the way and goes wrong for the two runaways in this sweet, bittersweet — very real — love story. A meditation on first love and first sex in the ’60s, “Liza, Liza, Skies Are Grey” introduced two remarkable new young actors, Mikey Madison (as Liza) and Sean H. Scully as Brett.

“I knew I wanted to cast an actual 15-year-old in the part of Liza rather than an older actress ‘playing’ a 15-year-old,” said Sanders. “I felt it would make my director’s life easier since the approach to the film was going to be more like cinema vérité. We sent out a casting call and auditioned about 12 young actresses, including Mikey, who had just turned 15. In addition to my immediate feeling that Mikey was physically right for the part, I was struck by how natural, spontaneous and believable she was. There was no sense of ‘reading’ lines; She effortlessly ‘became’ Liza and was speaking from the heart. Mikey was always hard-working and focused, took direction well and came up with many great ideas on her own. I’m incredibly happy to see her huge and well deserved success in ‘Anora’.” 

While primarily known for documentaries, Sanders produced and directed and/or co-directed three feature dramatic films, each of which introduced an actor who became a star, George Hamilton in “Crime and Punishment USA,” Robert Redford in “War Hunt” and Mikey Madison in “Liza, Liza, Skies are Grey.” Sanders also produced and photographed another dramatic film, the Oscar-winning short set during the Civil War, “A Time Out of War,” which also holds the distinction of being the first student film in history to win a real Oscar. It also won many other International awards including the Venice Film Festival.