Heather O'Neill's latest short story transformed for film

A short story written by Montreal writer Heather O'Neill has jumped off the pages to take on a new life in the animated world.

National Film Board director Claire Blanchet says she knew she wanted to recreate O’Neill’s universe the first time she read The End of Pinky.

"It conjures so many images in your mind," she said. "I had the most vivid experience when I read the story for the first time, and it really immediately was a universe that I could see and feel and hear."

The animated version of the story was screened for the first time on Friday by the National Film Board of Canada.

CBC’s Anna Asimakopulos was invited along for a sneak peek.

'"I had the most vivid experience ... It really immediately was a universe that I could see and feel and hear."  —Claire Blanchet, National Film Board

She found out that at first, O’Neill was hesitant to give away the movie rights for her piece.

But after several meetings with Blanchet, O’Neill says she made her decision when the director pulled out a drawing of the character Mia.

"This long girl with long long skinny legs and this red fur hat was there," O’Neill says. "It kind of gave me this feeling of what the movie might be like."

"It was done in this almost half Jean-Luc Goddard, half Alice in Wonderland kind of way, which is similar to my writing style," she adds.

The next steps for the film will be determined by festival programmers as it makes the rounds at film festivals around the world.