Scott’s Pizza Tours

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Filmmakers: K. Ryan Jones, Shawn Willis
Runtime: 75 minutes

Synopsis:
It would be easy to call Scott Wiener a pizza expert or pizza obsessive, but that would be an understatement. He runs a successful tour business in NYC, where he leads visitors to the best and most historic pizzerias in the world, teaching the history and science of pizza. He eats 15 slices per week, writes a column in Pizza Today magazine, judges competitions, and–oh, yeah–he’s the Guinness World Record holder for the largest collection of pizza boxes, now numbering nearly 1,000 different boxes from 55 countries. In Scott’s Pizza Tours, we’ll witness how one man is able to make a living in one of the most delicious industries on earth. We’ll travel from New York pizzerias, to the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas, and, of course, to the birthplace of pizza itself: Naples, Italy. And, yes, we’ll figure out how someone is able to store 975 pizza boxes in a Brooklyn apartment.

About the Filmmakers

K. Ryan Jones

K. Ryan Jones has a BA in Film Studies from the University of Kansas, where he made his first successful film, the feature-length documentary Fall from Grace, in which he infiltrated one of the country’s most prolific hate groups: the Westboro Baptist Church. Before he even earned his degree, the film was premiered to wide acclaim at the South by Southwest film festival, and was eventually sold to Showtime and Netflix. Since 2009, Ryan has been producing short content for outlets like Newsweek, MSNBC, New York Magazine, GQ, and The New York Times. In 2014, he co-founded production company Notice Pictures, which uses profits made from corporate marketing and communications work to fund independent documentary features. Their most recent project, Scott’s Pizza Tours, just premiered at the Doc NYC Film Festival, and is being released by Filmbuff in March.

 

Shawn Willis

Shawn Willis is an award winning narrative and documentary filmmaker. He worked for several years as a location scout on television series including Law & Order, Californication, and The Americans before launching his production company, Notice Pictures with Co-Founder K. Ryan Jones. Shawn has directed feature length films — Urban Century: America’s Return to Main Street and Scott’s Pizza Tours— along with short films — The Ephesian, and the PBS show, Going Greener in PA. Shawn’s been a documentary contributor for MSNBC and has served as an emergency responder and advisor to humanitarian organization, FilmAid International. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife Katherine and daughter Lydia.