Walking Papers: Francesco Clark

Few memoirs have moved me as emotionally as the book, Walking Papers, which was written by Francesco Clark. In the late 1980's, Francesco was a twenty four year old man enjoying a dazzling post college life in New York City. He was about to begin a lucrative job at a public relations firm after a successful stint at Harper’s Bazaar Magazine. One night in May, Francesco escaped the city for his summer rental in the Hamptons and decided to take a late night swim. This evening would prove to be pivotal and life altering as he accidently dove into the shallow end of the pool, hitting his chin and shattering his spine. Francesco was told that he would never walk again or function independently. The book graphically chronicles Francesco’s recovery process as a C4 quadriplegic and his coming to terms with the ramifications of his injury. Buoyed by the undying love and support of his close knit Italian American family, Francisco struggles to regain movement and is fearless in his determination to explore experimental surgeries and therapies. As a reader, I was astounded at the apathy and negativity of his doctors and therapists who told Francesco to simply accept his new life. This story moved me to tears and ignited a desire to assist people such as Francesco in my own small way. Readers learn that in the era of technology and stem cell research that a spinal injury does not necessarily lead to a life in purgatory. Ultimately, Francesco Clark has flourished in the years since his injury and is carrying the torch as an Ambassador for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. He is also a successful entrepreneur of a skin care line which proceeds benefit the above foundation. I hope you will read this amazing memoir because you will be changed as a human being by reading this exceptional story of one person’s mission to survive. You will be grateful for your own blessings and Francesco’s memoir may inspire you to give to others. Finally, books such as this one are the reason I write on this blog; hoping to promote a love of reading and compassion for others through the written word.

Q & A: Rex Pickett (Sideways: The Play)

Interview:   Rex Pickett

How did the theatrical production of your novel, Sideways, come to fruition at the Ruskin Theater in LA?

I was doing a book signing for my new novel Vertical at Pinot Days, a huge wine event held in the football field-sized Barker Hangar, across the street from the Ruskin Group Theater.  I was approached by Jason Matthews, a person associated with the Ruskin Group Theater.  He asked me if I had ever thought about doing a stage production of Sideways.  I said no, but I’d be happy to take a meeting about it.  We met a few days later.  I liked what he said.  Then I met with the whole team at Ruskin:  Managing Director Mikey Myers, Founder John Ruskin, some others.  They were very passionate about a stage production, and I responded positively to that.  I also responded to the fact that I would have total creative control – over the final script, the hiring of the director, etc., so I said:  Okay, let’s do it.  I also agreed to do it because I knew there would be a final product.  Writing screenplays for hire is a drag because 99% of the time your work just ends up mired in development, and never sees the screen.  This would be something real, the reason I made indie films back in the ‘80s.

First I had to read the novel, which I hadn’t done in 7 years.  I was surprised how dialogue-driven it was, and how that would transfer to the stage.   With no restrictions I wrote a first draft.  We held a cold read.  There were notes.  Mostly they were about how to compress the play, get it down to a reasonable length.  Then came the director hiring process.  After some unfelicitious interviews with some award-winning older gentlemen who treated me condescendingly, I ultimately chose a second-time director in Amelia Mulkey.  The two of us went to work on the script.  We never fought.  She’s amazing.  The whole crew at the Ruskin Group Theater was amazing, very supportive, never imposing their vision, only helping me bring my vision to the stage.  It was a total collaborative process from start to finish, a year and a half after they approached me to opening night.  The single most rewarding creative experience in all the things I’ve done.

The film adaptation of Sideways was a huge critical and commercial success.  How closely were you involved in the creation of the movie?

Alexander Payne (the director and co-adapter) and his writing partner Jim Taylor gave me every draft of the script and were very interested in my input.  My only main contribution was Maya’s speech on wine delivered by Virginia Madsen.  I didn’t write it, but I urged them to write a complementary speech to Miles’s soliloquy on Pinot that precedes her now famous one after reading two drafts where her speech didn’t exist at all.  I also had a little something to do with the ending.  Other than having created the universe with my novel, I didn’t have a whole lot to do with the movie.   Payne runs a tight ship, and once they get past the script and into pre-production there isn’t a whole hell of a lot the novelist is required to do.

What was your reaction to your original idea becoming an Academy Award winning film?

It was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, but only won for Best Adapted Screenplay, not Best Picture.  Which, of course, made me happiest of all.  Even more than Best Picture.  Exultation was my reaction.  Surprise, shock and exultation.  After what I went through in the ‘90s, chronicled in a very long 7-part blog on Stage32.com, I felt like the proverbial Phoenix risen from the proverbial ashes.

I read that you had submitted your manuscript of Sideways numerous times for publication and were rejected.  How did you persevere?

I blogged about this extensively on Stage32.com in a piece called My Life on Spec: the Writing of Sideways.  I highly recommend your readers read it.  Go to “Blogs” and then to “December.”  It’s 15,000 words long and, for an aspiring, not for the faint of heart.

Are the characters, Miles and Jack autobiographical?

Sideways is written in the first person from the standpoint of Miles, so it’s very personal, very autobiographical.  Jack is based on a close friend of mine, Roy Gittens.

In the novel, the Miles and Jack take a momentous trip to the Santa Ynez Valley in California. Can you describe the beauty of this area to readers? (FYI: The blogger is a huge Napa Valley fan).

The Santa Ynez Valley sort of reminds me a little of what I imagine Tuscany must be like, albeit having never been there, and with the added bonus of being nestled close to an ocean.  It’s a sleepy place, sort of a “hick” place really, but it’s not overrun like Napa/Sonoma, which is also incredibly beautiful.  There’s just something tranquil about wine country, whether it be the Santa Ynez Valley, Napa/Sonoma, or the Willamette Valley.

Why did you want to become a writer and who are some artists of any genre who continue to inspire you?

I didn’t want to become a writer necessarily; it wanted to inhabit me.  It came from inside.  And then it was all about film.  I’ve been inspired as much, if not more so, by film than by literature.

I know it sounds self-serving, but I’m inspired by the work of Alexander Payne in U.S. cinema, but very few others.  Fatih Akin in Germany.  Marco Bellochio out of Italy.  And I’m trying to read the great Chilean writer Roberto Bolano.  Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye still moves me.

Can you discuss your new novel, Vertical, and the mother/son theme that it conveys?

It’s a long story.  My mother had a massive stroke that left her full left-side paralyzed and wheelchair-dependent in ’90.  My younger brother wrested control of her care and, more or less, squandered her life savings in two years.  I had to assume control of her care and it wasn’t easy.  I wrote a script titled The Road Back, inspired by this.  It was sold, but never made.  Then when Sideways became successful, my publishing agent twisted my arm into novelizing The Road Back.  I did so reluctantly, and it was a horrible experience with Alfred A. Knopf.  The book wasn’t working, so I got out of the deal and morphed the mother/son story into what is now the Sideways sequel Vertical.

As a successful writer, what is your advice for individuals who are just beginning in this career?

Follow me on Twitter @RexPickett because I Tweet #Writing tips all the time.  First of all, it’s a life, not an avocation.  You might make it sooner than others, but more than likely it’s going to be later, and it’s going to be a tough road.  Be mindful of the marketplace, but try to find your own voice.  Read copiously.  Read great novels, read great screenplays, and see great movies.  Develop an aesthetic sensibility.  Writing and experiencing what great writers have written or great filmmakers have made feed and nourish one another.  Don’t complain.  Writing owes you nothing.

Do you have plans for a third novel and what are some current ideas that excite you as a creative person?

I didn’t have plans for a third novel until I was approached to do one.  And that’s all I can say on that front, except that it will be, if I elect to do it, Part III of the Sideways trilogy.

I’m excited about Sideways: the Play and where it will travel next.  It could easily consume the next couple years of my life.  And there’s a script that I just optioned that I would like to direct titled Repairman.

Guest Post: Professor Emily Stinson: Signs of Life

Signs of Life Review – Emily Stinson

Death is a subject not many of us like to discuss. It makes us uncomfortable and fearful to talk or think of death because it is the one thing that we cannot control. None of us know when or where it will strike. We like to imagine we will all live a long life, but the truth of the matter is that none of us are guaranteed that. Accidents, disease, wrong place at the wrong time, any number of things can happen to us or our loved ones, altering (or ending) the course of our lives. And when we lose a loved one, we are forced to re-imagine and reinvent our "normal" lives, without that loved one. The pain and cycle of grief is a personal journey, different for everyone, and extremely difficult to endure, much less overcome.

Natalie Taylor, in her memoir, Signs of Life bravely details her journey through grief when she, at age twenty-four and five months pregnant, loses her husband, Josh to a tragic accident. The memoir begins on the night Natalie learns of her husband's death and continues on through the birth of her son, concluding a little over a year after Josh’s accident. Along the way, Natalie grieves and rebuilds her life as a single parent, helped along the way by friends and family.

This is a very difficult read, to be certain, mostly because Natalie’s personable writing style makes it hard to put any kind of emotional distance between author and reader. I felt almost as if Natalie became my friend while reading this. It is always important for memoir writing to connect to its audience, but it is quite different to ask readers to connect to an experience as personal and difficult as death, something that most do everything in their power to avoid thinking about. It is a testament to Natalie that she is able to forge a connection between herself and her reader because the cost to readers is to experience emotions so raw and powerful that it is almost painful to keep reading. I cried almost every time I picked this book up. I often found myself both wanting desperately for the impossible - for Natalie to get Josh back - and simultaneously, appreciating my own husband in ways I never had before. There were moments when I would lay awake reading and stop just to appreciate the snores I heard next to me, that I could reach over and touch a warm and healthy body. It is a shame that it so often takes death to get us to appreciate life.

Natalie's writing style and tone is very conversational and honest. She doesn't save face and hold back her thoughts and feelings about the grieving process itself and the way others treat her, which ranges from overly helpful to outright avoidance. However, Natalie never comes across as whiny or self-absorbed either. Though she has every right to feel wronged and cheated, she doesn't allow herself to go down those paths. Instead, she finds ways to appreciate life and make the best of her circumstances. The birth of her son seems to be something of a turning point for Natalie; where before she was a grieving widow, she now must be a mother. It is her decision that she does not want her son to grow up with a mother who is constantly sad and grieving that seems to draw the line in the sand between whom she was and who she would like to be.

Along with the trials of motherhood, Natalie must also deal with raising a child on her own. When selecting a new parents group to attend, she has to choose between selecting the couples group or the single parents group, not truly fitting into either camp: after all, she is a single mother, but she was married and would still be if it weren't for Josh's accident. Finding her own way seems to be a major theme in Natalie’s story; most do not become a widow in their mid-twenties, and so Natalie must create the rules for this atypical identity. She fields questions about whether her son has a relationship with his father in her grief group, and she has to explain to those who learn of Josh’s death why she doesn’t still wear her wedding ring. I imagine one of the hardest moments for her would have been receiving a letter from social security saying her marriage had been terminated due to Josh's death. How must it have felt for a government agency to tell you your marriage is over?

However, despite the unreal circumstances that Natalie finds herself in, she manages to keep her imagination alive, and it is often a tool she uses to combat grief: present in her story is a cast of imagined characters and scenarios that aid Natalie. After she connects to a particularly touching chapter in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows where Harry must confront the choice between life and death, Natalie imagines herself calling up J.K. Rowling and having a conversation with the famous author about how she, Natalie, is really doing after Josh’s death. There is a scenario where Natalie stars in her own version of The Bachelorette where suitors are tested on their ability to do household chores or care for children rather than woo their bachelorette with flowers and fancy dinners. My personal favorite is Natalie's "fairy mom godmother,” a twist on the traditional fairy godmother who comes to Natalie's aid after her son is born when others say or do the wrong things to help. These imagined "daydreams," so to speak, provide moments of light hearted humor and bring something unique to the memoir.

Another important aspect of the memoir is how Natalie's job helps her through the grieving process. Natalie is a high school English teacher whose creative approach to teaching literature is a treat for all those who have a close connection to the discipline. I’ve spent most of my life with my face buried behind a book, and now I teach English and Composition at the Community College level, so I have a personal and professional investment to not only the study of literature but the teaching of it as well. Despite the fact that it has been a while since I read the texts Natalie teaches – A Separate Peace, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, among others – and I don’t teach them in my college classes, I appreciate the way Natalie encourages her students to make their understanding of literature personal. Natalie herself sees these texts in a completely different light after Josh’s death. The way these novels connect to her and teach her reminded me why I love this profession and how important it is for us to have a relationship with literature. Sometimes, books are the only guides we have when life gets tough.

Ultimately, this is a story of hope and of appreciating life despite extremely difficult circumstances. I recommend this memoir to all, especially if you've ever suffered a loss and/or if you have a passion for literature. Death is certainly not a fun subject to read and talk about, but it's important for us to have a dialogue about it because it is inevitable. I am thankful to have read this book, even though it led to a lot of tears, because while the center theme is about struggling to rebuild after a tragic death, it also teaches a great deal about the preciousness of life. And that is certainly something we should never ever forget.

Q & A: Natalie Taylor (Author,Signs of Life)

Interview:  Natalie Taylor – Signs of Life

Natalie Taylor is the author of the memoir, Signs of Life, in which she examines losing her husband, Josh, at the age of twenty-four while five months pregnant with their son, Kai.

She is deeply honest and brave in this book, detailing her journey through grief, family dynamics, and new motherhood. As a high school English teacher, Taylor enriches her own writing with references and musings on authors whose words have touched her. This book is a must read and I hope you will enjoy our wonderful interview:

Why did you want to share your story in a memoir and how were you able to get this book published?

I wanted to share my story because one of my biggest challenges in grieving was that I constantly felt like I was alone.  I felt like I was the only 24 year-old widow on the planet.  That makes it hard because grief can make your brain to all sorts of weird things and if you go through those things by yourself, you start to think you’re crazy.  But if you learn about other people who are going through the same thing, you start to realize you’re just being human.  I so badly wanted other people to know that if they had talked to thin air, stared at a calendar suddenly mystified by the concept of time passing, or broken out into tears at the Home Depot check-out line, they were not crazy. 

I was able to get this book published because I am a very lucky person.  I gave it to my brother who is a screenwriter in L.A. and he handed to these guys who handed it to this other guy and that guy handed it to a book agent.  She called me and a few months later, we found an editor.  Every step along the way I kept thinking, “if it only goes this far, I’ll be happy because it means someone out there other than my mother really believes in this book.”  And then it just kept going until a box of hardcover books showed up at my door one day with my name on them. 

How did you balance writing, motherhood, and your career as an English teacher?

This is a two-part answer.  1.  For the first two years of Kai’s life I was so incredibly scared to have any free time, I worked until I was too tired to close my lap-top.  After Kai fell asleep, I could not handle the idea of walking out into a empty house and thinking, “now what?”  And really, I could only clean the kitchen so many times.  So I made a project and decided to write a book.  As exhausting as all of it was, it was better than watching television by myself.

As a writer, what is your schedule and process?

A lot of times I think of stuff when I drive or when I’m in the shower, which may sound bizarre.  But usually I think about something until I really feel like if I don’t write it down, I’ll forget about it.  Sometimes I only have about 30 seconds to type an idea into the computer before my son comes up to me with 16 questions about Egrets.  But then later when I have some time to myself, I go back and write for a while until the thing that was in my head is on a screen where I can shape it and trim it up the way I want to. 

In terms of a schedule, I set a lot of deadlines for myself or else I’d never get anything done.  As an English teacher, I have papers to grade every few weeks, so I typically write in waves and then when papers come in, I dedicate all of my time to those and then eventually get back to the writing. 

What were the inspirations behind the cover images on the hardback and paperback versions of your book?

We wanted something that said, “This book has a sad premise, but it’s going to be okay in the end.”  It’s hard to convince people to read a book when you say, “It’s about this pregnant woman whose husband dies.”  So we wanted a hopeful, uplifting image to help the reader understand that it wasn’t a dark story, because it really isn’t.  It’s more about life than death.

Describe the response of your students when you became a published author.

They asked the best questions.  “Are you going to be on Oprah?!”  “Can we Google you?!”  “Does this mean you are a millionaire?!”  Bless their heart for thinking an author could be a millionaire.  For the most part though, it was business as usual in room 270. 

How has becoming a writer influenced your work as a high school English teacher?

As an English teacher, I constantly say, “Authors make choices.”  Often times we get so wrapped up in the story we forget that there is a puppeteer behind every character and that puppeteer is deciding where the action goes.  Sometimes that is tough to get across to students that someone would spend so much time thinking about these small details in a text.  “What if Fitzgerald just felt like making it rain!  Why does there have to be a reason!?”  They always ask stuff like that.  But there is a reason!  Now I can speak from experience that authors really do make choices.  Of course, I am not an author of literature, but after going through the editing process with an editor, it made me realize how every single detail really does speak to “the work as a whole,” as we say in Lit class.  But, at the same time, these are teenagers and no matter how much experience I do or don’t have as an author, I am still an adult to them, which means I have no idea what I am talking about. 

You were candidly honest in your book. What was the reaction of the real life characters who were depicted in your story?

Incredibly supportive.  That’s the long and the short of it.  I had numerous conversations with people as I was writing the book to make sure I could include the events that I included, names, etc., and all I got was love and support. 

As a bibliophile, I felt a kindred spirit in your numerous literary references.  Can you share some of your most favorite authors and titles?

This is a hard question!  Ranking my favorite books is like ranking my friends—they all bring something wonderful and different into my life.  If I had to say, I absolutely love The Color Purple.  Right after Josh passed away I remember thinking, “no one knows how I feel, no one has ever felt as bad as I have felt,” and then I thought about Celie and her life is way worse than mine.  But Walker is so good that by the end she gives us hope.  I also love The Grapes of Wrath.  I think ever American citizen should read it.  I sincerely believe Barack Obama should lead a book group on The Grapes of Wrath.  (Or Maybe Michelle should do the book group now that I think about it).  But the list is endless.  Every time I read The Great Gatsby I think to myself, “How could one man think of this all by himself.”  I am reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for the first time and I can’t put it down.  To me, reading classic literature is like watching the Olympics.  You just sit back and think, “Wow.  Look at what our species is capable of.”

What is life like since readers last read the epilogue in Signs of Life?

This is so hard to describe because the last time people saw me, the sun was just rising for me, but I still had a long way to go.  Now, life is amazing.  Life after death has given me an appreciation for living that I never had before.  I just like to soak up the little moments like walking Kai in to school, listening to him play with his toys, watching him sound out letters.  We spend a lot of time with our family and friends.  They are still solid as a rock for us. 

What are your current writing projects and do you hope to publish another book?

I have a current project right now, but I’m going to keep it quiet.  But I can tell you that I feel really good about it.  Having a project is fun and I definitely feel at my best when I have something cooking.

**Thank you to Emily Stinson for sharing this amazing book with this me-  Jenny R.

Q & A: Caroline Leavitt

Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Pictures of You, plus eight other novels. Pictures of You was on the Best of 2011 Lists from the San Francisco Chronicle, the Providence Journal, Bookmarks Magazine and was one of the Top Five Books on the Family and Love from Kirkus Reviews. She is a book critic for People Magazine and the Boston Globe and a book columnist for Shoptopia.com and Dame Magazine. She teaches novel writing at UCLA Writer's Program online and mentors writers privately. She lives with her husband, the writer Jeff Tamarkin, and their son Max, in Hoboken, NJ. She can be reached at www.carolineleavitt.com.

What are some elements of your background that led you to pursue a career as a writer?

I grew up sickly with asthma and bullied in my small town of Waltham (near Boston). I had a lot of time to myself to read, which I loved because I didn’t have to be a little girl struggling to breathe—I could be a dancer in Paris!  But I didn’t want to just read books, I wanted to write stories and I began to do that. The first time I read a story in front of my class and they liked it (instead of mocking me or throwing spitballs, the way they usually did), I knew this was what I wanted to do.

Who are some of your favorite writers and artists?

Cindy Sherman’s photographs, Mark Rothko’s paintings, F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby is a perfect book.)

What is your process and schedule when creating a new book?

I’m always haunted by an idea and a character, some question that I want to answer. I do outline but the outline is rewritten every day that I sit down to write.

Can you share with readers a bit about your love of movies and how it influenced your bestseller, Pictures of You?

I’m a total movieholic. As a little girl, I spent a lot of time in the movies, and I never stopped loving them.  I began to want to write them years ago and I took a few classes, Robert McKee, which I didn’t like, and John Truby story structure which changed my life. I won a Nickelodeon Finalist for a script I wrote for Doug, a cartoon my son adored. Knowing how to write scripts helped me in my novel to visualize the scenes more, to get the rhythm of them faster and tighter and to make sure there was lots of subtext in the dialogue. I’ve just written the script for Pictures of You and sent it off to Sundance Screenwriting Lab (really competitive—I can’t imagine I will get in, but you never know), and to a producer who said she’d give me notes.

Are there autobiographical characteristics between you and Isabelle, the main character in Pictures of You?

The only similarity we share is that we both are phobic about driving! Like all 16-year-olds I got my license but all they made me do was drive around the block and I still couldn’t drive! I was too terrified that I would get in an accident and kill someone. I took these refresher courses and the instructor finally pulled me over to the side of the road, sighed, and said, “You know, Caroline, some people just aren’t meant to drive. You may be one of them.”

Unlike Isabelle, I still don’t drive. I don’t even like to be a passenger in a car. Lucky for me, I live in the NYC area where you don’t have to drive.

How did you land the coveted position as a reviewer at People Magazine?

Luck and timing. I had been a book columnist at the Boston Globe for a few years already and a friend told me that they were hiring a new books editor and they were looking for new reviewers. I applied INSTANTLY. I love working for them. They send me books I might never have picked up, so I’ve gotten to read really widely.

When I pick up new books, you are always giving praise. Why are you such a strong advocate for new authors?

Because the business is so, so hard. I’ve had successful authors help me as I came up the ladder, and I never forgot their incredible kindness, and I was determined to pay it forward. But I’ve also had writers hurt me—one even denigrated me by name in print!  This shocked me, and that made me vow that I was always going to do the opposite.

What inspires you?

I would use the word haunt instead of inspire. I write because I have to. I have to explore the things that obsess me, to try and figure out answers to the things that haunt me.

In your opinion, is social media a benefit or hindrance to authors?

Definitely a benefit. I’ve gotten research help in seconds just by posting a query. I’m actually putting FB and Twitter in the dedication of my new book because I’ve felt that so many people supported me during the writing of the novel by responding to my postings about how it was going. They cheered me on!

What are your current projects and dreams for the  future?

My new novel, tentatively titled Is This Tomorrow, will come out from my beloved publisher Algonquin Books in 2013. It’s set in the 1950s and 60s, during the cold war, and is about a seemingly unsolvable crime in a supposedly safe suburban neighborhood (a child vanishes), and how the one different family—a divorced Jewish woman and her son—are somehow targeted for the crime.

Q & A: Filmmaker: Chris Chong Chan Fui

       Q & A:  Chris Chong Chan Fui

1.       In an online interview, I read that you were originally a student of business and are a self-taught filmmaker.   How were you able to make this transition?

CCCF:  The transition from business to film was made blindly. In business, decisions are made with historical data so as to graph a direction of what the future holds.  I took the opposite, and more naïve approach, and believed that the unknown future ahead would lead me to answers of the past.  Moving into manipulating film was out of pure wide-eyed curiosity.  A curiosity much like opening a book of fantasy that leads to a more entertaining and unpredictable realm.

2.       As a child, what were some experiences in your background that cultivated your artistic pursuits?

CCCF:  My childhood was in a fishbowl, as it is now. 

3.       In Block B, your internationally award winning short-film, the setting is a Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) apartment complex.  Please describe the demographics and background of this site.

CCCF: The area, called Brickfields, is a major local transportation hub (mono-rails, trains, and buses), but also an area of red-light prostitution, blind massage parlors, Indian cafés, temples, churches and mosques alike. This is a place where the overriding sounds of the azan (Muslim call to prayer) coming from the mosque compete with the chimes rising from the pooja (Hindu prayers). In effect, this mélange of sounds mimic the disparate voices that comprise the country’s own religious complexities and insecurities. Brickfields is also known as the ‘Indian’ part of town because of the large population of expatriate Indians working in Kuala Lumpur (KL) in IT, engineering, architecture, etc. for 2-4 year contracts. The husbands, who are hired to work in KL, bring their families along. Their wives are usually highly educated, but become housewives in an effort to support the husband’s careers. It was common that the wives rarely left the apartment compound. Only venturing outside with their husbands, and sometimes with their neighbors. Usually  they visit others within the same floor, or from the floors above/below. But they rarely venture far. In a country that highly discriminates against Indian-Malaysians, these residents fall between the cracks because they are expatriate, middle-upper class, highly educated, brought to KL to work. They are self-contained within their own compound, looking at the troubles of Malaysia and the Indian-Malaysians from a distance even though they live in the same area. It’s a community within a community. A detail within a detail. Connected, but distant.

4.       Why did you choose this specific place for the film?

CCCF:  I had lived in this building for two years.  This was my community for that period of time.  This was my sightline.   

5.       What was the artistic process of Block B from start to finish?

Block B is a moving painting.  The project started from a canvas of the monolithic cement building which neither had a personality nor unique features.  The challenge was to allow the different personalities of the building and their stories seep out.  What this meant was to partially choreograph or paint the singular unmoving image of the building into a vibrant ‘moving-image’ using physical movement and varying light sources.

6.       How can individuals in the United States and abroad see more of your innovative work and other international short films?

CCCF:  That’s tough question as it depends on festivals / exhibitors.  Perhaps the website.  

7.       Where do your artistic inspirations come from and how do you hone your creativity?

CCCF:  Normally, I am provoked to create a work.  It is not necessarily an idea because I feel an idea is too casual.  I am provoked like a nagging voice.  A clear nagging voice with no source. 

8.       Who are some of your favorite filmmakers, artists, and authors?

CCCF:  Francis Bacon. 

9.       What are your current projects and how can people outside of Malaysia see more of your amazing work?

CCCF:  I’m sorting that out at the moment.  Hoping to be provoked very shortly. 

The Story of Beautiful Girl: Rachel Simon

The Story of Beautiful Girl is a 2011 New York Times bestselling fictional novel by Rachel Simon. The story begins in 1968 on a treacherous, rainy November night at the Pennsylvania farmhouse of a semi-reclusive widow, Martha. Her lonely solitude is abruptly interrupted by the sudden appearance of two disheveled and desperate strangers, Homan, a deaf African American man and his companion, Laynie. As Martha bravely accepts the stricken travelers into her home she realizes that Laynie may be mentally disabled and that she carries a tiny newborn under her rain soaked blanket. Commotion erupts as the police arrive and take Laynie into custody. Homan is able to escape into the stormy night while the baby remains hidden in Martha’s attic. This cataclysmic night propels the conflict of the story and we follow the characters through four decades of its ramifications. Simon eloquently chronicles these events and the aftermath of the the characters’ attempted escape this night from the nearby Pennsylvania School for the Incurable and Feebleminded. The school provides an element of historical realism to the novel, as it is loosely based on actual mental health facilities of this time period. This was an era in American history when mentally challenged children or those with misdiagnosed disabilities where locked away from society and their families, many times for life.

The Story of Beautiful Girl paints a realistic depiction into the minds of its characters who may appear externally disabled but internally live the same human condition as the rest of us. Simon writes from the unique perspectives of Homan and Laynie and readers observe a vivid internal dialogue. Martha also lends her voice to the narrative as her life has been irrevocably changed by her chance encounter with Laynie and Homan.

Being inquisitive, I was compelled to do a bit of outside research into historical accounts of state institutions for the mentally disabled. In Q & A at the end of the book, Simon mentions a young Geraldo Rivera’s Peabody Award winning television reports on the Willowbrook State School located in Staten Island, New York in the early 1970’s. Rivera documented the deplorable and atrocious conditions at Willowbrook School and brought awareness to the plight of its residents. Also, there are two current documentary films,Cropsey (2009) and Unforgotten: Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook (1996), which reference the chilling conditions at Willowbrook and the aftermath of its closing.

In the opening reviews of the novel, author John Grogan (Marley and Me), writes, “I dare you to read the first twenty pages and not keep going.” Fortunately, I took his challenge and was pleasantly surprised with an amazing work of fiction most worthy of reading.