Living in 'Zanzibar'
CAMBRIDGE - Given that filmmaker Joanna Lipper has read "A Girl From Zanzibar" at least 10 times, not counting the nights she rereads a chapter in bed, her paperback copy of Roger King's novel should be more dog-eared than it is.
Instead the blue cover of the book about a young woman's journey from Zanzibar to London to Vermont that forms the basis for Lipper's next movie is in pristine condition. Lipper has inserted color-coded paper clips to bookmark the text with such care the pages aren't torn. The red clips indicate Benji, lover of protagonist Marcella; green indicates corruption; white Marcella's life in London. Lipper has highlighted passages in yellow.
"It's a way of me living intimately with the text," Lipper says. "I have to live with those images and experiences."
Lipper, 36, is a Harvard-educated Manhattanite, back for a yearlong fellowship at Harvard's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research. She's here working on a film adaptation of the British-born King's fourth novel, in which Marcella moves to London, is imprisoned for her unwitting involvement in an illegal arms deal, and finally teaches college in New England. King's first two novels were nominated for the prestigious Booker prize.
Lipper, impeccably clad in a tailored navy blue blouse and skirt, leans into conversation, using her hands for emphasis, speaking fast, then sits back and rests her head on her hand. "It's hard to keep up with her sometimes," says King, 61.
King, who's lived in Leverett in western Massachusetts since 1997, met Lipper at a screening of her award-winning 1999 documentary, "Growing Up Fast," about teenaged mothers in Pittsfield. King later gave her a copy of "Zanzibar."
"Even though it's not Joanna's background, she felt she had a lot in common with the main character," King says, "and made me feel she would push to succeed in a way another producer might not."
Lipper is preparing to take King's screenplay to backers for a movie she hopes to make for under $6 million.
Lipper's first film was the 1996 documentary "Inside Out: Portraits of Children." Her first feature film is "Little Fugitive," a 2006 remake of the 1953 film about a young boy who flees to Coney Island after being tricked into believing he killed his brother.
Lipper leafs through her copy of "Zanzibar" and stops on a page in which Marcella contemplates resolving her relationship with Benji. What woman, Lipper muses, would not identify with that?
"There are things about Marcella's journey that are very familiar to me. Her journey through her 20s," Lipper says. "She embraced life with a lot of passion. I identified with that." 