Dallas Book Clubs Foster Conversation Through Film-Related Books

Art begets art, and conversation, for two Dallas book clubs focusing on works that have inspired or been inspired by films.

Page to Screen meets each month at Whose Books in Oak Cliff, and covers books that have been adapted for the screen. Meanwhile, Interabang Books hosts a monthly BFI Book Club, dedicated to discussing the British Film Institute’s “BFI Film Classics” series. These are books written by scholars and journalists about classic films and designed to deepen readers’ understanding of the movies.

Matthew Pillado, a former lawyer and educator, leads the discussion each month for Page to Screen. He says the book club has been a natural extension of the work he did as an English teacher.

“I would always tell my students … whatever you’re feeling, whatever you’re going through in life, has probably been written about, or there’s probably a story about it,” he says.

Pillado would have mini-book clubs with his students, where they could give him a book and he would read and discuss it with them. When he met Claudia and John Vega, the owners of Whose Books, they became friends and ultimately decided to start Page to Screen.

Pillado works with the Vegas to select book/film combos for the club that will generate discussion, keep the conversation evolving, and help bring in attendees. In recent months the club has discussed Presumed Innocent and The Shawshank Redemption, and will be shifting to magical realism with February’s pick, Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo.

Focusing on different types of books and their adaptations has made for lively discussions. Presumed Innocent led to a conversation about sexism and how it is reflected in a book from the ‘80s and a film from the ‘90s as opposed to a more contemporary view.

“I think the bulk of the conversation is always the comparison with the book and the movie,” says Pillado, who researches the authors of each book and their motivations. “I like to take it a little bit deeper than just the ‘Which one was better’ kind of argument … kind of push for the ‘why’ and the analysis, and then we really compare the characters. Did [the filmmakers] convey it the way the author did, right?”

In his heart, Pillado is still a teacher, and he sees the book club as an instrument to get people excited about and engaged with reading, while giving them a space to share their thoughts.

“I think, for me, that it’s really, really awesome to see all these different perspectives, even if they don’t agree with me, or we have different opinions,” he says. “It’s just good that everyone’s here talking about it… I guess the biggest thing is just seeing all the diverse people coming in — old, young, race, culture, all — like, it kind of transcends everything. And, yeah, that’s really cool.”

A little farther north, marketing coordinator Lewis Parry began overseeing the BFI Book Club since it kicked off in May 2023. Much like Pillado, he wants to use the intersection between film and the written word to foster discussion and critical thought about both. Each month, the club looks at a classic film with a BFI Film Classics book written about it, and meets to discuss their thoughts on the movie and what the author of the book had to say about it.

Parry says the idea for BFI Book Club came from Lori Feathers, a co-owner of Interabang Books, who thought it might be a way for Parry (a graduate of University of North Texas’ film program) to combine his passion for film with his love of reading. Nearly two years later, the club is fully operational and partners with the Texas Theatre to host screenings of some of the films they cover.

“What I really like about it is that there are two facets to [the book club],” Parry says. “We’re reacting to the film itself, and we’ll talk about that. We’re also talking about a book, not only what it teaches us, but if we think it’s successful as this critical essay about the film. You know, so we can talk about the actual writing quality. We can talk about, if it introduced new ideas to us, do we actually appreciate the film more after we complete it?”

The regular meetings have led to the creation of a community of people, like Parry, with a passion for film and reading; they have a Discord channel where people can talk about what they watch and read in between meetings.

While there is definitely a close-knit group of members, Parry says the club is open to anyone interested in attending. They just have to show up at Interabang when the club meets. He says they have even had attendees who did not read the book, but loved the movie being covered, and wanted to take part in the conversation.

“We’re not going to spoil the movie for [them], right?” Parry says with a laugh. “What we’re gonna do is talk about the ideas that the author has presented.”

Ultimately, the BFI Book Club has become a source of joy for Parry, and a way for him to share his passion for movies with the rest of Dallas.

“It’s just … I love film,” he says. “I love talking about it. I’ve always really enjoyed that. You know, I came out of film school being like, ‘I think I should just go back and be a professor.’ So having this book club just really feels like closing a circle, in a way.”

Page to Screen and the BFI Book Club are free to attend. Additional information for each can be found on the Whose Books and Interabang Books websites.