BookShorts BiblioBlog: BookShorts VIDEO: Scotiabank Giller Award Winners

There is an abundance of coverage of the Giller event and the gracious winner, young and charming Vincent Lam. A google seach will net a list of links longer than your arm. Media coverage on books, and the publicity machine that drives it, will be the subject for a future entry.

In the meantime, and being that this is BookShorts, we were particularly interested in the short film profiles that were broadcast in the course of the event.

Hats off to Gordon Henderson, his producer Bree, and the posse at CTV including Michael Serapio. They did an amazing job with them this year. They harken back to the creative approach Gordon began to use in 2002, my fav being the short for Austin Clarke's "Polished Hoe" (which circumstantially won that year). With gorgeous b-roll, a sensitive selections of stills, and originally composed music for each profile, they were a delight to watch, completely in keeping with the overall high production values and "bling" factor of the event itself.

In speaking with Bree after the show, she reminded me that they produced, or at least show, all five in two weeks, between the moment they announced the short list and in time for their integration into the broadcast.

An informal survey of one, with Pauline Couture with whom we made the BookShort "ICE Beauty Danger History" confirmed my opinion that they have a life beyond this one show. Let's hope that we see them again.

Check out http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.com/ for HQ central, or watch the re-broadcast on CTV Nov. 11 at 4pm ET.

Formats available: MPEG1 Video (.mpg)