Across the Pacific

FAIN: TD-50100-09

Filmmakers Collaborative, Inc. (Melrose, MA 02176-3933)
Stephen E. Lyons (Project Director: February 2009 to February 2012)

Development of a two-hour documentary about one of the great milestones in the history of flight: the 1935 crossing of the Pacific Ocean in a Pan American Airways flying boat called the China Clipper.

This is a request for a 75,000 scripting grant for a two hour documentary about one of the great milestones in the history of flight: the 1935 crossing of the Pacific Ocean in a Pan American Airways flying boat called the China Clipper. The Pacific crossing was a technological achievement that captured public imagination in much the way the space program did a generation later. It also began the era of transoceanic flight, an era that would lead to profound changes in American foreign policy, commerce and the way Americans saw the world. Produced by one of the makers of Forgotten Genius, NOVAs NEH funded, Emmy Award winning biography of black chemist Percy Julian, Across the Pacific will combine dramatic reenactments, interviews with scholars, and films and photographs drawn from the rich archival record about the early days of commercial aviation. The film is intended for primetime broadcast on PBS or cable TV. The Smithsonian Channel has already expressed interest.