Experiencing Interruptions?

Farther Along: The World of Donald Harington, Pt. 2

What happens when a sprightly divorcée school teacher writes a fan letter to a lonely, depressed novelist? Will this improbable new muse somehow save his life and help him revive his career?

In this follow-up to "Stay More: The World of Donald Harington" (2013), Arkansawyer Donald Harington tells how a fateful letter from his future wife helped inspire the “quirkiest, most original body of work in contemporary U. S. letters” (Boston Globe). The course of true love never did run less smooth -- or more funny -- through creative (and rejected) marriage proposals, anniversary tricks, book collaborations, life-threatening illnesses, and a series of boldly and playfully experimental novels that pushed the boundaries of American literature. Tampering eagerly with history (just never with fiction!), the Nabokov of the Ozarks spins a yarn worthy of his novels, his beloved Fate Thing peopling his own life with lovers and liars, despairs and delights that even he could hardly have dreamed up.

  • Brian Walter
    Director
    Stay More: The World of Donald Harington (2013)
  • Brian Walter
    Writer
    Stay More: The World of Donald Harington (2013)
  • Brian Walter
    Producer
    Stay More: The World of Donald Harington
  • University of Arkansas Press
    Producer
  • Donald Harington
    Key Cast
  • Kim Harington
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Biopic, Arkansas History & Culture
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 40 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    October 23, 2015
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    DV (standard definition) and HDV
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Ozark Foothills FilmFest
    Batesville, Arkansas
    United States
    April 9, 2016
Distribution Information
  • University of Arkansas Press
    Country: United States
    Rights: Video / Disc
Director Biography - Brian Walter

Brian Walter, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English and Director of Convocations at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. He is the director of the feature documentary "Stay More: The World of Donald Harington" (U. of Arkansas Press, 2013), and he has written articles, reviews, and fiction about the author's work. He also appears as an ‘old coot’ interviewer with a magical camera and tricky questions in the last chapter of Harington's last novel, "Enduring." He lives a short walk from the St. Louis Zoo with his inimitable and beloved wife, Brenda, and three lively, quirky felines.

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Director Statement

I hope that this documentary will inspire viewers to read (or return to) Harington's books, which constitute their own superb gifts to anyone with an attentive ear, an open heart, and a taste for lively word-wit grounded deeply in the timeless vagaries of human love and loss. The documentary’s more ambitious aim is to convey some of the divinely devastating comedy of Harington’s warm-hearted but clear-eyed sensibility, developed through decades of sadness and devastating trials – to help the viewer (like readers of his books) to smile through the tears that his stories inevitably conjure along with all the laughs.