Editor’s Note: Islander Phil Clapham’s “Desert Island Bookwork” series, which frequently graced The Beachcomber’s pages in 2020-2022, is back, probing the literary choices of filmmaker Paris Zarcilla.

The jury for the recent Vashon Island Film Festival featured Paris Zarcilla, a filmmaker who last year took the festival’s Best Director and Best Screenplay awards for his movie “Raging Grace.”

I sat down with him one afternoon to solicit his answers to the question behind this occasional column: which handful of books would you take to a desert island, and why?

Zarcilla, whose parents are Filipino, grew up in the United Kingdom. “I was a bit of a hellion as a teen,” he admitted. “I was left alone a lot — my parents ran a café — but my imagination flourished in that isolation. VHS tapes became my proxy family.”

They gave him a basic understanding of film-making, and at age 16, he was shooting footage with a mini-DV camera borrowed (without permission) from his brother. “But I didn’t yet have an idea of a story.”

He studied animation at university and started shooting music videos for friends. “That was essentially my film school,” he said, “and allowed me to practice my craft. I learned how to tell stories in three minutes, but of course, I didn’t have any money.” Then he broke into commercials: his first job was directing an ad for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

While that finally gave Zarcilla some income — and enough of a reputation to bring more work — it wasn’t artistically satisfying. “In that business,” he said, “you’re the first to be blamed, and others take credit for your best ideas. After five years I’d burned out, and I’d strayed very far away from what I really wanted to do.” So he shut down his company, and as a result, “I suddenly went from having a healthy income to virtually none.”

Then he shot his first short film, “Pommel,” about brothers who were competing gymnasts; the short brought him some national attention. Eventually, he wrote and directed “Raging Grace.” It was his first feature film, and it garnered numerous awards on the international festival circuit.

Zarcilla picked five books for his desert island. The first is Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet.” “There’s a poetic wisdom about it,” he said. “It speaks to my spirit, and it made me curious about the world beyond my body. It focused my attention on the spirituality of the universe.”

His second book is “Blood and Gold,” the eighth novel in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series. “I liked gothic horror a lot when I was younger, and I was obsessed with Rice’s books,” he said.

“Blood and Gold” features Marius the Roman, who becomes a vampire. “He travels through history,” Zarcilla noted. “Marius has lost his humanity, but he’s still searching for it. The writing is beautiful and very poetic. I loved how Rice made it very evocative of the time period — it combined my love of history and gothic horror.”

Next is Aristotle’s “Poetics.”

“It was recommended by screenwriter friends,” he said, “and I remember thinking, ‘really?’ Isn’t there something more up-to-date?” But, he said, “Aristotle takes you back to the principles of storytelling, and it gave me a foundation for my own work.”

Unfortunately, he added, “It’s deeply sexist, but beyond that, it’s an edifying read.”

“Next, I’d take Virginia Woolf’s ‘Orlando.’ I love how it moves through the passage of time,” he said. “It resonates strongly today, and in some ways challenges the concept of gender itself.” Zarcilla is working on a screenplay adaption of the novel. “I’m testing the vernaculars of the time,” he says, “and experimenting with modern slang. I’d like to bring Woolf’s story into a modern context.”

Zarcilla’s final book would be “Devotions,” a collection of Mary Oliver’s poetry. “Oliver was the first poet who made me realize that not having a direction was okay,” he said. “She also showed me that you should live your life with authenticity.” He quoted the final lines from Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day”: Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Zarcilla smiles. “If you ever want time to stop,” he concluded, “just pick up Mary Oliver.”

Phil Clapham is a retired whale biologist who lives on Maury Island. His comic romance novel “Jack” (under his nom-de-plume Phillip Boleyn) is available on Amazon.