Press Kits
Paul Quarrington Life in Music
http://www.bookshorts.com/pq_life_in_music/
A Feature Documentary Film
Produced by Judith Keenan, BookShorts Inc., Directed by Bert Kish
BRAVO! TV Broadcast Dates
Saturday, May 29 at 7pm EDT and Sunday, May 30 at 6pm EDT
PLUS DVD Available June 2010 and National Screening Tour September – October 2010
Film Synopsis
Paul Quarrington is an award winning, well respected and much loved author, filmmaker, musician and teacher. Though a very public figure in the field of Canadian arts, and an artist who made himself easily accessible to fans, he was also a complex person. So much so that few in his public or private sphere say they really knew him. With the sudden diagnosis of terminal illness, he is compelled to address this in the best way he knows how – he chooses to make art – to squeeze the juice from life and pour his passion into making this film, into re-writing his about-to-be-published memoir to include his “new thematic material,” and into writing songs, lots of songs, all made more poignant for the absolute deadline at hand.
Through this film, Paul gives us a rare and insightful glimpse into the inner workings of an artist in the act of creating. As he writes, records and performs, you see the heart and soul of a man able to express in music deeply personal issues. We witness the artist, and the man, reach for a resolution to the question that we will all face when our time comes, “what would you do?”
On screen conversations with some of the most important people in Quarrington’s life amplify the inspiring message, including longtime friend and bandmate Martin Worthy, Roddy Doyle, Dave Bidini, Wayson Choy, brothers Joel Quarrington and Tony Quarrington, daughters Carson and Flannery and their mother Dorothy Bennie. Comments by Nick Jennings and Martin Levin provide context and threaded throughout are live performances by Paul, his band Porkbelly Futures, Dan Hill, Joe Hall, Roberto Occhipinti and many more musical guests.
BRAVO! is an oasis in the television landscape where viewers make a regular appointment with the arts. Whether it’s a classic opera, an art documentary, a performance in the Concert Hall, or a cutting-edge film, Bravo! gives viewers an opportunity for enriching and thought-provoking experiences. Bravo! is owned by CTV Limited, a division of CTVglobemedia, Canada’s premiere multi-media company. More info at http://www.bravo.ca
BOOKSHORTS INC. produces screen-based media, specializing in content inspired by authors, books and publishing. The media is distributed via television broadcast, Internet, live events, film festivals and other multi-platform promotions. www.bookshorts.com
PRODUCED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF CANADA MEDIA FUND; ONTARIO TAX CREDITS; CANADIAN TAX CREDITS; BOOKSHORTS LITERACY PROGRAM; HUMBER COLLEGE.
Cigar Box Banjo Notes on Music and Life
http://www.dmpibooks.com/book/cigar-box-banjo
Paul Quarrington had a favourite recording as a kid: a boy fashions a banjo from a cigar box, sets off for a contest in the next town, and wins with a song that weaves in the sounds he hears along the way. As a grown-up writer and musician, Quarrington still loved the tale. And after he learned he had stage IV lung cancer, the story took on a whole new meaning for him.
Eclectic, hilarious, and endearingly frank, Cigar Box Banjo tracks a life lived in music and words. Quarrington ruminates on the bands of his childhood; his restless youth, playing bass with the cult band Joe Hall and the Continental Drift; and his incarnation, in middle age, as rhythm guitarist and singer with the band Porkbelly Futures. Ranging through rock’n’roll, the blues, folk, country, and soul, he explores how songs are made and why they affect us so profoundly.
Enhanced CD includes three new Quarrington solo music tracks and first release of “Hey, Hollywood” music video as well as the official trailer for the documentary feature “Paul Quarrington: Life in Music.”
Paul Quarrington The Songs
http://shop.cordovabay.com/item102.htm
http://www.cordovabay.com/artist_main.php?cat=30
A beautiful collection of songs by renowned Canadian songwriter and author Paul Quarrington. Upon learning he had lung cancer in May 2009, Paul set about living life to the fullest and channeling his creative energy into the completion of many artistic endeavours. This included a third album with the band Porkbelly Futures, his memoir Cigar Box Banjo for Greystone Books, the documentary film inspired by the book Paul Quarrington: Life in Music (BookShorts / CTV Bravo) and this album that would become his only solo release.
Track Listing:
1. All The Stars
2. Friendly
3. This Old Body
4. Over Yonder
5. Lake Effect Snow
6. Celestial Navigation
7. Wherever You Go
8. Hey Hollywood
9. The Valley Below
10. Sheralee
11. A Waltz At 3 AM
12. The Weight of Wings
13. Big Ol’ Bass
14. Hello Jim
The Ravine
http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307356147
Every childhood contains at least one ?ravine??one episode where the normal fabric of everyday life rips and the monsters come roaring out. But only Giller-nominated novelist Paul Quarrington could make that moment both profound and profoundly funny.
Phil McQuigge’s marriage is over, he has lost his job as the producer of a wildly successful TV series, and has also lost the star of that series, who died on the set under mysterious circumstances that seem to be all Phil?s fault.
So Phil, who self-medicates for guilt and despair with liberal quantities of alcohol and what remains of his wit, sets out on a redemptive quest. He has narrowed down the source of his mid-life freefall to the lingering consequences of an ugly incident that happened in a suburban ravine when he was a boy, on an afternoon of adventure with his little brother, Jay, and their hapless tagalong, Norman Kitchen. Phil decides that if he can only find and make amends to Norman Kitchen then just maybe the planets will once again align benevolently with his fate.
Paul Quarrington describes his tenth novel as what would happen if he had written Mystic River. He has a point: in his hands, comedy rides on top of a tragic undertow as the novel follows the surprising echoes of boyhood trauma in the lives of all three men. The extra surprise twist at the end? What Phil ends up having to atone for is not the sin he thinks he has committed.
Porkbelly Futures
http://www.cordovabay.com/artist_main.php?cat=26
Porkbelly Futures takes, writers, rockers, classical musicians and does the only logical thing. It creates a sort of jazzy blues band with a country twang. The band reunite the singer/song-writing team of Paul Quarrington and Martin Worthy, whose 1980 album produced by John Capek and engineered by Daniel Lanois yielded the #1 hit single “Baby and the Blues”. Quarrington is one of Canada’s best-known literary figures, having won awards for his novels, TV scripts, screenplays and songwriting.
Completing the exciting new Porkbelly Futures band are some of Canada’s busiest musicians. Stuart Laughton substituted his classical trumpet for guitar/harmonica, vocalist extraordinaire Rebecca Campbell is prominently featured and ace bassist Chas Elliott continues to do what he does best. The band’s up-coming,self-titled release is particularly special as it stars their late bandmate and one of the great keyboard players of our time, Richard Bell.
Pavane
A Dramatic Short Film Written & Directed by
Paul Quarrington
Credits for the short film based on The Ravine. (PDF)
BRIEF: Connected by debilitating memories, bottomless drinks, and the pretext of being strangers, Phil and Jay play out a darkly comic ritual in an effort to redeem themselves, and each other, of a shameful childhood incident.
DESCRIPTION: Phil and Jay share more than a family bond – failed careers, failed relationships, bottomless drinks, and a debilitating memory of a shocking encounter in a ravine one childhood day. The pretext of being strangers, the darkly comic ritual that the broken, non-functioning brothers perform in an attempt to get at their pain, can?t cover the palpable connection between them, nor their deeply felt desire to find redemption.
Cutting between live action performed by an award-winning cast and ingenuous animation whose simplicity belies the impact of the incident it reveals, Pavane portrays both the loss of innocence and a subtle hint at the boys? fragile potential for a new beginning.
Pavane displays Quarrington?s sophisticated command of each of his many artistic talents. From his deep wide ranging musical knowledge, he has chosen Prokofiev?s knuckle-busting Sonata Op. 6 to drive the increasingly frenetic animated flashbacks. Ravel?s Pavane pour une infante d?funte, from which the film takes its title, musically underscore the tenuous optimism of its denouement. Animator Chris Minos? simple lines of the animated drawings are modeled on Quarrington?s original character sketches. The screenplay, adapted from his novel The Ravine, and the nuanced performances Quarrington has made possible with the stellar cast, allows audiences to empathize with his characters to a degree rarely achieved in the short film format.
ABOUT THE BOOK: Everyone experiences at least one ?ravine? moment in their life ? an episode when the normal everyday takes a steep, life-changing tumble into something quite out of the ordinary. Delivered in his own voice both profound and profoundly funny, Quarrington’s semi-autobiographical novel is one of his most authentic in a long list of award-winning books.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER / AUTHOR: Paul Quarrington?s extensive credentials span his artistic talent as filmmaker, author and musician. A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto, he has written several screenplays including Camilla, Giant Steps, Perfectly Normal and Whale Music, adapted from his Governor?s General Award-winning novel. His professional resume for the screen includes a long list of credits in short film, television and feature film, for independent and studio producers in Canada and the United States. He is in continuous demand as an instructor in the art of writing for the screen. He is currently completing the feature film adaptation of The Ravine which will further explore the narrative and characters introduced in Pavane.
