A moving (and funny) story … Ottawa Citizen

By James MacGowan … Paul Quarrington presents a short film version of The Ravine at Writers Festival….

Busy man, that Paul Quarrington. Right now, he’s multi-tasking: he’s got his ear to his cellphone and his eyes searching for a place to park and chat. He’s in Toronto, so this is harder than fitting a camel through the eye of a needle.

“I’m going to go up here and just pull over,” he says, finally. “That way I can give you the full weight of my concentration.” He’s being funny. He’s always being funny. He’s a damn funny guy and his latest book, The Ravine, is a damn funny book and a thumping good read. … he has done some movie work. Which is why he’s coming to Ottawa, as part of the BookShorts Moving Stories Film Festival. For the first time, Quarrington not only wrote a script for a film, he directed it as well. It’s called Pavane, and it’s based upon The Ravine. Now, it’s only five minutes and 28 seconds long, so he hasn’t completely ventured into the land of Spielberg and Kubrick, but it was a nice beginning. (You can see a trailer of the short at movingstoriesfilmfest.com/media/pavane).

“It wasn’t technically my debut,” he counters, when I ask how it felt to be behind the camera for the first time. “I’ve actually made three short films. Indeed, I attended the Canadian Film Centre as a director resident 16 years ago. And yes, I would like to direct the full-length version. While I don’t think I can really direct a film, I don’t think anyone else can either.” (I’m not sure what that means, but never mind. It’s Quarrington, after all.)

Odd thing about the writing of The Ravine. Halfway through, he stopped. Something was pulling at him and that something was a screenplay. So he wrote the screenplay for the novel that was not yet finished. When that was done, he finished the novel. He then also decided to do a short-film version, which is how Pavane was born.

“We are in the business of making short films inspired by books,” agrees Judith Keenan, executive director of the Moving Stories Film Festival. “The films are crafted from an artistic perspective just like any short film would be — each has a narrative arc, a beginning, middle and ending, and gives every viewer a satisfying experience. The original screenplay for each film is adapted from a book because that’s our niche, we love to introduce new readers to the work of both our authors and our filmmakers.

“There are those that agree that our little guys stand on their own — CBC is on board to broadcast Pavane, A Life’s Passion; Bravo continues to support the films (What Casanova Told Me, Pavane, Nagasaki Circus), as does the National Film Board (Nagasaki Circus, and others just now in development stage).”

Pavane, A Life’s Passion and Nagasaki Circus will be shown Wednesday, along with This Hour Has Seven Decades, JPOD, The Gargoyle and nine others, all based on written word sources (short stories, poems). Then, on Thursday, Quarrington will be conducting a workshop with Keenan on the difficulties of adapting a novel for the screen.

“The big problem,” he says, “is that movies are a lot smaller than people think they are. A relatively small book like Whale Music can’t fit comfortably into a movie — you have to pick and choose.”

Quarrington says adapting his own work, such as Whale Music, is easier, because he has no qualms about cutting things. When he’s adapting someone else’s work, he becomes “fiercely protective of their work because it’s theirs. Myself, because I’m closer to me, I can say, ‘Get over yourself, Paul’.”

When he was working with director Richard Lewis on Whale Music, for instance, there were quite a few times where Lewis wanted to add a scene from the book, but Quarrington wouldn’t allow it. “Well, it’s in the book,” Lewis would say. “Who cares?” Quarrington would respond.

This Thursday, you’ll learn how to be just as self-flagellating. From the master, no less.

Paul Quarrington will appear at the Ottawa International Writers Festival on Wednesday at 7 p.m and Thursday at 4 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

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James Macgowan’s blog, Cover to Cover, is a perfect destination to read what’s happening in the world of books

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James MacGowan, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Sunday, October 19, 2008