The series consists of files on Cynthia Scott's various film projects, both realized ones on which she worked as researcher, writer, director or producer, and abandoned ones which were never realized.
Among the realized projects are files on 'The Ungrateful Land' (1973), 'West' (1974), 'Scoggie' (1975), 'You've Got the Power' (1978-1979), 'First Winter' (1981), 'For the Love of Dance' (1981), 'Gala' (1982), 'Flamenco at 5:15' (1983), 'A Good Tree. Christmas' (1984), 'Discussions in Bioethics: A Chronic Problem' (1986), 'Jack of Hearts' ((1986) and 'The Company of Strangers' (1990). The files contain general correspondence and fan mail, research material and interviews, proposals, script drafts, finished scripts, shooting scripts, location shots, production material, correspondence and memoranda about distribution and publicity, publicity stills, clippings of reviews, and other material. Among the correspondence are letters from flamenco dancer Susana Janssen ('Flamenco at 5:15'), and from Catherine Roche, Mary Meigs, Marion McCormick, Mavis Gallant and Anne Wheeler ('The Company of Strangers'). The files on 'You've Got the Power' include work by Don Arioli.
Among the files on unrealized projects are ones on the artist Joe Plaskett (including letters from him), on the writer Austin Clarke (including letters from him), on being a mother (including Scott's own introspections on the subject), on writer Gabrielle Roy (including a letter from her), and on writer Sandra Birdsell's stories (including letters from her).
Additional records include further files on the realised projects 'For the Love of Dance' (1981), 'Gala' (1982), 'Flamenco at 5:15' (1983), 'Visions of Five' (1984), 'Jack of Hearts' (1986) and 'The Company of Strangers' (1990), containing research material, correspondence including fan mail, clippings, publicity material and programmes; there is extensive material relating to 'The Company of Strangers' screenings at international film festivals. The additional records also include material on 'The Lover's Lament', a drama based on a Guy de Maupassant story and directed by Scott for a three-part CBC mini-series titled 'The Edge', 1998-1999. The documentation includes script drafts by scriptwriter Sharon Riis, with correspondence from her, the shooting script, research notes and publicity material. There is also a shooting script for an episode of the television series 'Emily of New Moon', 1997.
The additional material includes files on an abandoned project titled 'Now or Never' about women in middle-age. The files include Scott's outlines and notes, research material (including transcripts of taped conversations), and correspondence including letters from writers Sharon Riis, 1994, and Judith Finlayson, 1993. There is also extensive documentation on the uncompleted project to film an adaptation of 'The Stone Diaries' by Carol Shields. The records include treatments, variant drafts of the screenplay by scriptwriters Patricia Watson, Sally Bochner and Semi Chellas, notes and research material, reports on the script by Gail Carr, and correspondence between Chellas and Scott.
Some photographs are inter-filed with the textual records and largely relate to shooting locations and publicity for Scott's films. Some oversize posters can be found in container 26.
