It only took one year abroad studying at the University of St. Andrews for California native, Mr Andrew Peat, to be inspired to get the wheels in motion for creating the documentary film ‘Scotch: A Golden Dream’.
Andrew’s film enjoyed its world premiere last year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and its European premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival in March 2019. The film has been released worldwide in theatres and via VOD through the Hollywood sales agency Concourse Media.
The film has now been seen at 15 international film festivals in the US, Canada, Argentina, Scotland, Ireland and the Czech Republic. The film’s theatrical releases were during February 2019 in Australia and New Zealand, while it was released on 8 March 2019 in 59 theatres in the UK and Ireland.
Andrew Peat is an Associate Professor in the Cinema and Television (CTV) programme at UIC. He graduated with honours from the University of California, Davis, earning certificates of excellence from both the English and History departments. He earned a Master of Fine Arts in Film and TV Production from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, while gaining experience in various areas of film production working on over 50 films (shorts and features).
He has focused on directing, scriptwriting, sound editing and design, Foley, ADR, as well as the final mix. Andrew also tries to balance his teaching life around making films through his company in Taiwan, Island Productions.
“I've had a lifelong passion for storytelling (I wanted to be a writer since age 11), took a filmmaking course at Davis, had an amazing experience with that, and decided mid-life to return to that passion. I applied to USC film school, was very lucky to be accepted, and graduated with an MFA.”
Andrew studied a full year of History as an exchange fellow at Scotland's oldest institution, University of St Andrews, which led to him developing knowledge and passion for whisky. Later, at USC film school, he did some research and discovered that there was very little in the form of documentaries covering Scotch whisky, so Andrew decided to develop a pitch for this feature film. His professors were delighted with the pitch and suggested he consider actually pursuing it to produce the film.
Andrew working as a mixer on students' films at the USC School of Cinematic Arts
The film ‘Scotch’ explores what the whisky industry has become, with 1.23 billion bottles exported in 2017. ‘Scotch’ was described as being very witty and funny, and Andrew says he believes it is essential to incorporate humour in life and film, across all genres.
“The interview questions I prepared allowed for subjects to share some amusing stories. Their answers were definitely organic; in a sense, we didn't set anything up. We allowed them space and freedom to answer any way they wanted, and to share stories of their lives, and they definitely used that freedom”.
Andrew started work on his liquor love letter at the end of 2014 by recruiting some of the biggest names in the whisky world to tell the story. He commented on how he loved getting to know these master distillers and blenders and seeing the process of going from barley to the bottles.
For his documentary, Andrew travelled all over the country, meeting the big names in the Scotch industry. Former Bowmore boss and Bruichladdich head distiller Jim McEwan emerged as the main character in the documentary.
Andrew cites his strong connection to Scotland due to his surname being Peat and how his Grandfather, who is a Glaswegian, migrated to the United States.
Andrew in Glasgow at the European Premiere of "Scotch: A Golden Dream"
UIC was looking for a professor, and as Andrew was living and working close by in Taiwan, he was contacted through a strong reference who was working at UIC at the time. Andrew started working at UIC from September 2015. His schedule allowed him to fly back and forth every week, which soon led to him being more ‘permanent’.
Andrew enjoys working at UIC and believes it is a fine school with excellent facilities and friendly staff. Andrew describes the students at UIC as energetic and lively, which he explains, is a pleasure to teach.
From MPRO
Reporter: Samuel Burgess
Photographs supplied by Andrew Peat
Editors: Deen He, Marissa Furney, Étienne Fermie
