Across the Pacific

FAIN: TR-50337-12

Filmmakers Collaborative, Inc. (Melrose, MA 02176-3933)
Stephen E. Lyons (Project Director: August 2011 to present)

Production of a two-hour documentary about the 1935 crossing of the Pacific Ocean in a Pan American Airways flying boat named the China Clipper.

This is a request for an $800,000 production grant for a two-hour documentary about one of the great milestones in the history of flight: the 1935 crossing of the Pacific Ocean by a Pan American Airways flying boat called the China Clipper. The Pacific crossing was a technological achievement that captured the world's 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 very way Americans saw the world. Produced by one of the makers of "Forgotten Genius," NOVA's NEH-funded, Emmy Award-winning biography of black chemist Percy Julian, "Across the Pacific" will combine dramatic re-enactments, 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. Smithsonian Channel has already expressed interest.