Moving Stories Films Hits The Road!

First Stop, Winnipeg!  Moving Stories Films makes its premiere on Sunday September 28th at THIN AIR Winnipeg International Writer’s Festival. Journalists, check out the Moving Stories Press Kit for photos, trailers, info about the films, filmmakers, books, authors and more! Check our tour schedule for the latest information on screenings and workshops dates as we tour the program across the country.

We’re thrilled to have special guests join us in Winnipeg!  Randall Maggs, author of Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems (Brick Books) will be in attendance and a short film adaptation of his work will be featured in the program.

“This film does what you hope a dramatization will do,” says Moving Stories Films advisor and publisher Anne Collins, “expand into the unsaid bits of the poem to bring an even bigger experience to the viewer.”

Also in attendance at the Festival is author David Waltner-Toews, shose BookShorts film “Food, Sex, and Salmonella” is also in the film program line up.

Paul Quarrington, Susin Nielsen and Judith Keenan explore the process of adaptation in a Moving Stories Master Class on Saturday Sept 27.

The tour continues in St. John’s, Ottawa and Vancouver in October, and Toronto in November. Stay tuned for more news as the tour unfolds and keep visiting our website for details!

Moving Stories Program Lineup to be announced early August

A huge thanks to all filmmakers who submitted their films for consideration. We’re pleased to have received so many unique films from all over the world, including Australia, Japan, Italy, The Netherlands, Denmark, UK, Switzerland, USA and throughout Canada.

The festival programming team is currently in the process of reviewing all submissions. We look forward to announcing the program lineup at the beginning of August. Good luck to all filmmakers, and stay tuned!

Publishers try new promotional tricks at BEC

Quill & Quire OMNI

June 13, 2008 | 6:58 PM | By Stuart Woods

Trying to stand out on BookExpo Canada’s crowded convention floor is a challenge many of the annual trade show’s exhibitors face, but it’s one that can lead to some unconventional marketing strategies. This year’s event, running Sunday and Monday, features a number of ambitious promotional campaigns – including a film-festival teaser, a unique prize giveaway, and a racy flesh-and-blood mascot – all vying for attention.

…..

Another BEC event that’s hardly by-the-book is a preview of the Moving Stories Film Festival, a program of book-inspired short films that will tour Canadian literary festivals this fall. Run by BookShorts founder Judith Keenan and curated by Canada Reads-winning author Paul Quarrington, the screening on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the BookShorts Lounge will feature an animated short by English filmmaker Kate Jessop (based on a poem by Diana Syder) as well as

a more conventional BookShorts-produced film commissioned by self-published author James McCreath, who will be promoting his soccer-themed “novel of hope,” Renaldo, at BEC.

Quarrington – who wrote and directed a short film based on his novel The Ravine, which he says may be included in the final festival lineup – views the promotion as an expression of the commonality between literature and film. “I think the novel’s much more flexible and agile as a storytelling mechanism, but movies are so popular, and especially with some of the new media, access to them is going to be so pervasive that it’s good for the two to co-operate.”

Keenan hopes the promotion will spur a “flurry” of new entries before the festival’s July 10 submissions deadline (the final 90-minute lineup will be announced on July 30) and attract potential screening partners from across North America. So far, the fest is slated to play at six literary festivals in Canada (including fests in Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Ottawa); one U.S. retailer, Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, has also signed on to host the program. “Ultimately, we’d like to get the booksellers on board and create community screening programs associated with their own outreach,” Keenan says, adding that she hopes to grab the attention of event planners at Indigo Books & Music at BEC.

For more information about Moving Stories Film Fest at BEC — watch this column on Sunday June 15!

Moving Stories Screening At Festivals Near You

2008 Confirmed Event Dates

Sep 28
Winnipeg, MB
THIN AIR 2008: Winnipeg International Writers Festival
http://www.winnipegwords.com

Oct 17-18
St. John’s, NL
St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival
http://www.womensfilmfestival.com

Oct 22
Ottawa, ON
Ottawa International Writers Festival Fall Edition
http://www.writersfestival.org

Oct 14
Banff 5nd Calgary, AB
WordFest: Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival
http://www.wordfest.com

Oct 25
Vancouver, BC
Vancouver International Writers Festival
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca

November 26
Toronto, ON
Pages Books & Music “This IS Not A Reading Series”
http://pagesbooks.ca/events.php?type=event&id=250

More Canadian and US host venues to be announced. Contact judith@bookshorts.com to request preview DVD and to enquire about hosting an event in your area, your library or bookstore!