Can Final Cut Pro copy edited project clips?

Hi,

I imported an hour of video into an iMovie '09 event. While creating and editing projects using this video, I've discovered what seems like a severe limitation.

I'm wondering if Final Cut can do what I want.

I created a project library folder, titled for example "My Movie". Within that folder I created several projects named "MM ed 1", "MM ed 2", and so forth. My intent was to edit smaller -- say around 5 minute -- "chunks" from the one hour event (I actually have over 2 hours of video to work on).

But now that I've done some of that, I find out that I can't copy these separate projects back into a single project. That is, I can do a copy/paste, but what I get doesn't have any of my editing: The tabs are gone, the audio is no longer detached nor repositioned. The cuts are gone. The inserted image from iPhoto is gone.

It seems my plan for editing the film in chunks is completely unworkable, at least in iMovie '09. Can it be done in Final Cut Pro?

If not, Is there another way to edit a long movie without having to have every single frame in the same project?

Thanks for all help and advice.