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FSU FILMMAKER-IN-RESIDENCE VALERIE SCOON WITH 'THE GREAT DEBATERS' SCREENWRITER ROBERT EISELE AT THE FILM'S PREMIERE.
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FSU filmmaker honored for work on award-winning screenplay, 'The Great Debaters'
Florida State University Filmmaker-in-Residence Valerie Scoon just added another line to the long list of industry honors at FSU's College of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts -- best known as The Film School.
As an associate producer of the critically acclaimed motion picture "The Great Debaters," Scoon has earned a share of the credit for its near-sweep of the 39th annual NAACP Image Awards on Feb. 14 in Los Angeles. The film received the Image Award for "Outstanding Motion Picture" and also garnered three of the evening's top prizes for acting, one of which went to "Debaters" star and director Denzel Washington.
"The Great Debaters" arrived at the Image Awards ceremony already laden with praise from critics and a Golden Globes nomination in the "Best Picture, Drama" category.
Scoon helped to develop the screenplay while serving as the director of development for feature films at Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films, which spearheaded the project.
"I love that this project has all the excitement of a sports film but is about the agility of the mind," said Scoon, who draws on her extensive film industry experience to teach story development and producing at FSU. She graduated from Harvard University, where she studied American history and literature.
As it happens, her alma mater figures prominently in "The Great Debaters." The film is based on the true story of a 1930s all-black debate team from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, that sought to compete equally with white students despite Jim Crow-era restrictions. In the movie, the Wiley team wound up facing Harvard, the national debating champion. (In fact, Wiley became the national champion by beating the University of Southern California.)
"When I began to write 'The Great Debaters' for Harpo Films, Valerie Scoon contributed her fine story sense to help shape the screenplay that ultimately attracted Denzel Washington's talents," said screenwriter Robert Eisele. "As an African American woman, Valerie's perspective was deep and authentic. As a Harvard grad, she helped to add the feel of truth to the screenplay's Boston and Harvard sequences. Her contributions were invaluable."
"I am so happy to see the film garner such wonderful recognition from the Golden Globes and NAACP Image Awards and many others," Scoon said. "But equally exciting is the recognition the film has received from the general audience. Many people have told me how the film moved them and shed light on a historical period and events they knew little about. To me, sharing the story of this historically black college and its dedicated teachers and students, who combated racism even as they excelled academically, is important because it allows us to honor a past that continues to inspire us today."
Scoon worked as a creative executive for feature films at Warner Brothers and a story analyst at Creative Artists Agency in Beverly Hills before joining Harpo Films to help develop major motion pictures, among them the highly acclaimed "Beloved" as well as "The Great Debaters."
While at Harpo, she also had a hand in television, earning associate producer credits for the mini-series "The Wedding" and "Oprah Winfrey presents: Their Eyes Were Watching God," both of which starred Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry.
In 2003, Scoon left Harpo Films to create True Visions Inc., a development company that produces fiction and non-fiction films for theatrical release. She joined the FSU Film School faculty in 2004.
"The Film School provides great support for my industry activities, which in turn offer hands-on learning opportunities for FSU students and alumni," Scoon said, who serves as the president and CEO of True Visions Productions. "One of my current projects, a documentary on the legacy of colonialism in Grenada, was crewed by FSU film students and is being edited by a Film School graduate."
Up next for Scoon: a film project based on an adaptation of "What Mama Couldn't Tell Us About Love," a book by award-winning journalist Brenda Richardson and clinical psychologist Brenda Wade that examines how a legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and racism affects African American women and their personal relationships.
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