Associate Professor
219 RTVC
(740) 274-1650
lewisf@ohio.edu
Areas of Expertise
- Narrative Production
- Documentary Studies/Production
- Scriptwriting
Prior to transitioning to higher education, Frederick was, for 14 years, a producer, writer, director and program/production manager based in New England. During that span he worked in commercial, cable and public television and produced everything from documentaries and public affairs programs to corporate video, commercials and Division I college basketball. He has received numerous grants, awards and nominations for his independent documentaries, which have been seen on PBS stations throughout the U.S. and screened at various universities, film festivals and museums, including the National Gallery of Art. These projects have taken him to Russia, Greenland, Argentina, Chile (sailing to Cape Horn), Denmark, Ireland, Newfoundland, Alaska...
The Washington Post wrote that his two-part, three-hour documentary on artist, adventurer, social activist Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) "plays like a two-night installment of PBS's 'American Masters,' calling it "a sweeping, detailed, visually rich portrait of a man who emerges as a complex, compelling and finally contradictory force of nature, a charismatic reflection of the eras in which he lived…"
A 2:49 marathon runner back in the day, Frederick is the author of Young at Heart: The Story of Johnny Kelley, Boston's Marathon Man, published by Rounder Books, and the producer/writer/director of "That Golden Distance," an Emmy-winning documentary about the early history of The Boston Marathon.
In 2011 Lewis will be writer in residence at Landfall in Newfoundland (landfalltrust.org) and a research fellow in Greenland at the Uummannaq Polar Institute: greenlandinpictures.com/uummannaqgreenland.html.
Lewis played a significant role in the transformation of OU's traditional broadcast television curriculum, a transition perhaps best evidenced by Trailerpark, which was made by 70 of his students for an advanced narrative production class. Based on a short story collection by acclaimed author Russell Banks, this full-length feature has been highly praised at film festivals. Go to: trailerparkmovie.com and YouTube: trailerparkmovie09. He is also the founding faculty advisor for the Media School's annual 48-hour Shootout competition and Guerrsfest, a yearly showcase of student-produced work.
Frederick has also taught at Boston University, the Rhode Island School of Design and the International Film & Television Workshops in Rockport, Maine (mainemedia.edu). Internationally he has been a teaching fellow at The Northern Film School in Leeds, Yorkshire, UK, and professed at the University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine, and been a U.S. Embassy (Berlin, Germany) lecturer at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Freiburg. He has designed and directed Education Abroad programs in Malaysia, Guyana, Germany and Ireland (2011). He is passionately committed to experiential learning. Quoth Confucius: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember. Let me do and I understand."
Education
M.A. Creative Writing/Literary Arts, Brown University
B.A. English, University of Massachusetts
Related Links
Posted on
Mon, November 1, 2010
by Clayton Burnett