Scott Dixon McDowell, M.F.A.

Professor

Scott Dixon McDowell joined the faculty of the Radio, Television and Film Department at The University of Southern Mississippi in 1989. He served as chair of the department from 1996 until 2001, when the RTF department was merged with journalism to form the School of Mass Communication and Journalism. Mr. McDowell has been teaching film production and screenwriting for eighteen years. He has produced a number of short films and authored several screenplays, including In Morning Calm, which won the MGM/UA Screenwriting Competition and was later optioned by Falcon Productions in Hollywood. His research has been devoted to studying the work of Academy Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning screenwriter and dramatist Horton Foote. Mr. McDowell has written and presented papers about Foote’s work at conferences throughout the United States. He wrote a chapter for Horton Foote: A Case Book, which was published in 1998. He is currently in post-production on a feature length documentary about Foote, which includes original interview material with Matthew Broderick, Arthur Penn, Robert Duvall, the late Alan J. Pakula and many others. Mr. McDowell was instrumental in the formation of the Mississippi Film and Video Alliance, a non-profit organization whose mission is to foster indigenous film and video production in Mississippi. He currently serves on the board of the organization. Mr. McDowell has also served on the advisory boards for the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration and the Mississippi Film Enterprise Zone.