CWU Professor’s Film Debuts Internationally

Projections of America, a film inspired by the work of Ian Scott, a visiting distinguished professor at Central Washington University, will air on the PBS International on November 11th in the United Kingdom and on PBS in the United States in December.

Scott, who teaches in CWU’s Film program, also recently co-authored a book about Oliver Stone that gained the acclaimed film director’s attention and garnered positive reviews.

Projections of America is based upon extensive, three-year-long research by Scott and DOCDAYS Productions. Scott served as the film’s historical advisor and script editor. He is also featured in the film as an historian.

The hour-long documentary is an account of idealistic filmmakers who during the darkest hours of WWII hoped to reshape the world’s perception. They produced 26 short documentaries romanticizing what America could be. For the past 70 years, however, the films were largely forgotten. Projections of America serves to unearth their historical cinematography for a 21st Century audience.

In addition to teaching film studies this academic year at CWU, Scott is a senior lecturer in American studies and the former associate dean at the University of Manchester in England.

“He is currently working with our advanced screenwriting students providing expertise and experience,” said film program co-director Jon Ward. “He’s a tremendous asset.”

Scott’s biography of Robert Riskin, In Capra’s Shadow: The Life and Career of Screenwriter Robert Riskin, served as the spark for the Projections of America project. In fact, it was while writing In Capra’s Shadow and researching Projections of America that Scott developed the idea for his next book — A Better Tomorrow: The OWI and Transatlantic World War II Propaganda.

Scott’s most recent book, released in August, is, The Cinema of Oliver Stone: Art, Authorship and Activism. The work is a collaboration between Scott and Henry Thompson, a former teaching fellow at the University of Manchester, and is based on extensive interviews with the director conducted over more than five years.

“It’s an original exploration organized around five themes—War, Politics, Money, Love and Corporations. …the writing is clear, lucid and economic, and I’d encourage you all to take a look,” Stone wrote.

Scott has authored a number of books including, American Politics in Hollywood Film, In Capra’s Shadow, The Life and Career of Screenwriter Robert Riskin, and other works. He also recently contributed the film essay “It Happened One Night” as part of the Library of Congress National Film Preservation.

The documentary film Projections of America appeared on television and at various film festivals in 2014-16. In 2016, it won Best Documentary at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary at the International Film Festival.

For television schedules of Projections of America, visit PBS International and PBS Local.

Media contact: Dawn Alford, Public Affairs, 509-963-1484, dawn.alford@cwu.edu.

November 9, 2016