Valerie Scoon - Film Producer/Director
As an executive at Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, Ms. Scoon’s credits include the Golden Globe nominated
"The Great Debaters" starring Denzel Washington, as well as an adaptation of "Beloved" by the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Toni Morrison. Ms. Scoon's credits also include the made-for-TV movies, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and “The Wedding", both starring Halle Berry. Ms. Scoon served as a Studio Executive at Warner Bros. and oversaw such films as "Malcolm X", directed by Spike Lee, and the children’s classic "The Secret Garden." She was also an Associate Director in News and Public Affairs at PBS, where she assessed documentaries for national distribution.
Currently, Ms. Scoon is a professor at the College of Motion Picture Arts at Florida State University and oversees the script development of graduate and undergraduate thesis films. During her time there, her students have won ten student Emmy Awards. She also teaches the documentary filmmaking class.
In addition, Ms. Scoon runs her own film company, True Visions, and completed a documentary, "Grenada: Colonialism and Conflict" on the psychological legacy of colonialism in Grenada. This documentary has been invited to screen in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Africa and throughout the Caribbean. Her most recent documentary, "Daring Women Doctors: Physicians in the 19th Century", aired nationally on PBS. She recently completed a documentary, "Invisible History" on the legacy of plantations and the enslaved in Leon County, Florida.