2011 Leacock Winner Trevor Cole salutes Quarrington’s influence

Trevor Cole has won the national award, which comes with a $15,000 prize from TD Financial Group, for his third novel, Practical Jean — an interesting title for a protagonist who, as Cole explained, had never dealt with “the hard practicalities of life” until she watched her mother die of cancer.

Cole was competing for the Leacock medal against Todd Babiak ( Toby: A Man), Terry Fallis ( The High Road), Red Green ( How to do Everything) and David Rakoff ( Half Empty), each of whom will also receive a cash prize. He was in good company, as he is now as a medal winner, and he knows it.

“One of my personal heroes was Paul Quarrington,” he said of the late author and past winner of the Leacock medal. “I was quite young (when Quarrington won), but that made me really perk up and see this as something I’d like to win, not just because he’d done it, but he made me aware of the award and I was able to figure out just how important it is.”

“It’s a little darker than usual (for a Leacock medal winner),” said Mike Hill, president of the Stephen Leacock Association. Winners of the award often write “a lighter, brighter kind of humour.” “This is black humour, and it’s funny,” Hill said.

Excerpted from The Barrie Examiner, April 29, 2011 - read the full article here.

Paul Quarrington Life in Music Doc Wins Gold Remi at Houston WorldFest

Out of more than 4,300 international category entries in the 10 major Remi Award Competitions, WorldFest-Houston, the third longest-running International Film Festival in North America, announced its roster of Award winners this week.  PAUL QUARRINGTON LIFE IN MUSIC garnered a Gold Remi in the category of Biography Feature.  The film is a production of BookShorts Inc., in collaboration with Bravo!, a division of CTV with the support of Canada Media Fund.  It was directed by Bert Kish and Executive Produced/Produced by Judith Keenan, with Executive Producer William Laurin and Bravo executive Charlotte Engel. For complete credits, trailers, and to purchase the DVD, visit http://www.bookshorts.com/pq_life_in_music

The documentary is an intimate portrait of an amazingly talented artist who is given a life sentence by one of the most ubiquitous diseases of our age – cancer.  Diagnosed at stage 4 (there is no stage 5), his lung cancer gave Quarrington only ten months to live.  But live he did, pouring his heart, soul and emotions into a host of creative projects: he toured the country and recorded a new album with his band Porkbelly Futures; made his first solo album called The Songs; finished writing his memoir Cigar Box Banjo: Notes on Life and Music; completed scripts for a dramatic series and a screenplay for feature film.  And of course he made this documentary film, capturing all of these endeavours on camera.

Though the filmmakers do hope to inspire audiences to live life to the full by sharing  Paul’s journey, the film is steadfastly not a “cancer film.”  There are no hospital shots or doctor’s diagnoses.  Instead, the audience witnesses an artist at the height of his creative process, delivering his story with humour, candour and poignant insight.  As Paul says himself, he wants his audiences to cry through their laughter, and laugh through their tears – that’s when a person is truly open to all the incredible experiences life has to offer, be it one year, or one hundred years long.

Hunter Todd, Chairman & Founding Director in his correspondence to the winners, states “It is very difficult to win a Remi in WorldFest… with so many entries, only about 15-20% are good enough to win the Award for Creative Excellence. In some categories, sometimes no awards are made because the entries that year did not score high enough to earn a Remi Award. My personal congratulations for a job very well done.”

WorldFest, founded as an International Film Society in August 1961, became the third competitive international film festival in North America, following San Francisco and New York.  WorldFest evolved into a competitive International Film Festival in April 1968 and has a long list of “discovered” film greats such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, David Lynch, Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone, Atom Egoyan, Randall Kleiser, Ang Lee, Robert Rodriguez, the Coen Brothers, John Lee Hancock and many others from their beginning efforts for film submissions early in their careers.  Multi award-winning producer/director Hunter Todd founded this film festival to honor all categories of film and video production continuing his long dedication of “Discovery,” spotlighting emerging Independent filmmakers as “the Spielbergs & Ang Lees of tomorrow.”   The Remi takes its name from the famous artist Frederick Remington, who captures the spirit of Texas and the West with his brilliant paintings and sculptures.

For more information and screening copies, contact:

Judith Keenan,  Executive Producer & Producer

Judith-at-bookshorts-dotcom