photographs by Mark Gamble

BIOGRAPHY
LAURA KISSEL is a documentary filmmaker, Associate Professor of Media Arts, and Director of the Film and Media Studies Program at the University of South Carolina. Kissel's documentary work explores issues surrounding landscape use and meaning and the use of orphan films. She also works as a Director of Photography, most recently on the documentary Open Secret (2011). Kissel's documentary Beyond the Classroom: China (2007), nominated for a Southeastern Regional Emmy Award in 2009, is an educational documentary about undergraduate student travel in China. Her nonfiction work, Cabin Field (2005), was honored with three festival awards including the Jurors' Citation Award at the 2006 Black Maria Film and Video Festival. Kissel has received numerous fellowships and grants for her work, including a Fulbright Fellowship, MacDowell Fellowship, and funding from the Fledgling Fund and The South Carolina Humanities Council. She is currently at work on a documentary about globalization and cotton. Kissel received her MFA in Radio-TV-Film from Northwestern University in 1999. 

education  
MFA, Radio-TV-Film, Northwestern University, 1999
BS, Cinema and Photography, Ithaca College, 1991

fellowships and honors           
Flaherty Seminar in China, 2012
Robert Flaherty Seminar Invited Featured Artist, 2011
Fulbright Fellowship to China, 2009
South Carolina Media Arts Fellow, 2008
MacDowell Fellow, MacDowell Colony, 2006
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Residency with Working Films, 2005

film & video works in progress

Cotton Road, Producer/Director/DP
A documentary about US cotton farmers, Chinese textile workers, and worldwide consumers.
funding: Fledgling Fund; South Carolina Humanities Council; Research Opportunity Program, USC; Fulbright Fellowship

invited preview screenings:

Flaherty Seminar in China November 2012: Fudan University, Shanghai; Zhejiang University, Hangzhou; and the
Harvest Festival/Yixian Photo Festival, Anhui Province (officially canceled)
Fingerlakes Environmental Film Festival, March 2012
Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, June 2011

Disability Is Us, Producer/Director/DP
A documentary that examines the archival record of disability and the contemporary disability rights movement.

publications

The Terrain of the Long Take. Journal of Visual Culture, 7.3 (December 2008)

Disability Is Us: Remembering, Recovering and Remaking the Image of Disability. Filming Difference, University of Texas Press. Edited by Daniel Bernardi.  

Lost, Found and Remade:   An Interview with Archivist and Film Artist, Carolyn Faber
Film History: An International Journal, 15.2 (Spring 2003), 208-213.

The Research Value of Amateur Films: Integrating Amateur and Found Footage into a Film Production Course
The Moving Image Journal, 2.2 (Fall 2002), 153-157.

filmography & select exhibitions

May Day (2012, 8:00, HD) Director/Editor/DP
An exploration of economic contrasts in Shanghai, China on May 1st, in the lead up
to the World Expo.

2012 Diversity in Place Film Festival, Honolulu, Hawaii

Tan Mian Hua (2011, 15:00, HD) Director/Editor/DP
A documentary short on the traditional process of cotton quilt production in China.

Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, June 2011 (premiere)

Association of Asian Studies Film Expo, San Diego, CA March 2013

2011-2012 touring festival program Flaherty on the Road: City Symphonies:
Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA April 12, 2012
Bentley University, Waltham, MA February 12, 2012
Ibrahim Theater at International House Philadelphia, PA February 3, 2012
Nightingale Cinema, Chicago, IL November 11, 2011
Flahertiana Festival, Perm, Russia October 15, 2011
James River Film Society, Richmond, VA September 15, 2011

Window Cleaning in Shanghai (2011, 3:00, HD) Director/Editor/DP
A documentary short about window washers in Shanghai, China.

Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, June 2011 (premiere)

9th Berlin International Director’s Lounge, Berlin, Germany, Feb. 15, 2013
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., May 19, 2012
San Francisco Int’l Asian American Film Festival, San Francisco, March 2012

2011-2012 touring festival program Flaherty on the Road: City Symphonies: (see above for venues)

Beyond the Classroom: CHINA (2008, 30:00, digital video)  Director/Editor/DP
An exploration of contemporary China told through the point of view of students, from cosmopolitan cities to rural mountain towns and industrial centers. The video highlights the importance of international travel as an educational experience and reveals how cultural exchange can expand and enrich our understanding of the world. Distributed by the University of South Carolina's Office of International Programs.

select public creenings:
Confucius Institute opening, USC Nov. 17, 2008
Reinvention Center Conference, Washington, D.C. Nov. 13, 2008
SCETV statewide broadcast in South Carolina, Aug. 7, 2008
University of South Carolina [premiere] Columbia, SC February 4-5, 2008

AWARDED:
2009 Southeast Regsion EMMY nomination (the only independent producer to be nomiated)
2008 CINE Golden Eagle Award
2008 Silver Telly Award for Excellence in Educational Video

Unfettering the Falcons (2007, 7:20, digital video) Co-Directed and Co-Produced with Niklas Sven Vollmer.
Part road movie, part nature documentary, this video playfully explores the falsely gendered nature of the Atlanta Falcons football moniker through a bird of prey expert and a rescued American Kestrel (falcon).

Nashville Film Festival, April 23, 2008
Indie Grits Film Festival, Columbia, SC, April 10, 2008
EarthVision Environmental Film Festival, Santa Cruz, CA March 4, 2008
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Missoula, MT February 16, 2008
Northwest Film Forum, IDC Showcase, Seattle, WA January 14, 2008
2007 IDC Showcase, sponsored by SILVERDOCS at the AFI Silver Theater, Silver Springs, MD   October 9, 2007
DokuFest Kosovo, Yugoslavia   August 2007
Hot Docs, IDC program, Toronto, Canada   April 28, 2007
International Documentary Challenge Finalist, March 2007

Cabin Field (2005, 40:00, 16mm film and digital video) Producer/Director/Editor/DP.   A non-fiction essay film that explores evidence of landscape use and social change on a cotton field in Georgia.

Published review:   The Moving Image Journal, Vol. 7.1, Spring 2007
Juried publication: Oxford American Magazine, Southern Movie DVD Issue, March 2007

St. Mary's College of Maryland, Experimental Documentary Series, February 11, 2008
NEH Exhibition The American Farm , at Old Independence Regional Museum, Batesville, AK   November 1, 2007
ATHICA Gallery, Athens, GA. "Ruburbs and Other Spaces Inbetween: Land Use and Environmentalism", May 2007
Ozark Foothills Film Festival, Little Rock, AK   March 30, 2007
Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD   January 19, 2007
Bickett Gallery, Raleigh, NC   September 21, 2006
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC   September 22, 2006
Atlanta Film and Video Festival, Atlanta, GA, June 2006
911 Media Arts Center, Seattle, WA, May, 2006
Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR, May 2006
Evergreen College, Olympia, WA, May 2006
Delta International Film and Video Festival, Cleveland, MS, April 2006 Awarded Best Documentary
Balgan Experimental Film & Video Series, Boston, MA, April 2006
Eyedrum, Atlanta, GA, April 2006
Black Maria Film and Video Festival 2006, Awarded Jury Citation Award
Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, Ithaca, NY April 2006 Women Direct, 25th Anniversary Invited Featured Artist
SCETV broadcast, "Southern Lens," March 2, 2006 and June 15,2006
Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles, CA, March 2006
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, February 24, 2006
University of Georgia, Environmental Ethics Program, January 30, 2006
Anthology Film Archives, NYC, February 8, 2006
Appalshop Media Arts Center, Whitesburg, KY, July 2005
Rural Route Film Festival, July 2006 Awarded Honorable Mention
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.   May 2005 [World Premiere]
McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina,   April-July 2005

Vivian's Beauty Shop (2002, 5 minutes, digital video) Producer/Director/Editor/DP.  
Hair culture in a small town beauty parlor.

St. Mary's College of Maryland Experimental Documentary Series, February 11, 2008
DC-TV, New York, NY, broadcast Feb. 2005
Rural Route Traveling Film Festival, Fall '03 - Spring '04 New Orleans, LA; Atlanta, GA; Columbia, MO; Flagstaff, AZ;Abingdon, VA
Red Bank International Film Festival, Red Bank, NJ, October 2003
Rural Route Film Festival, Brooklyn, NY, July 2003
Accessibility, Sumter, SC, September 2001

Aviatrix:   Women Aviators of the Silent and Sound Era (2001, 30 minutes) Editor.
An archival compilation film illustrating women aviators and the culture of flight.

Experimental Aviation Museum, Osh Kosh, WI, July 2003
Orphan Film Symposium II:   Documenting the 20 th Century Columbia, SC, March 2001

Leaving Bristol (1999, 35:00, 16mm film) Producer/Director/Editor/DP.
A documentary film that explores my family's farm in East Tennessee and my Grandmother's failed memories.

SCETV broadcast, "Southern Lens," January 20, 2005
SCINDY Festival, Piccolo Spoleto, Charleston, SC, May 2001
James River Festival of the Moving Image, Richmond, VA   April 2000 Awarded   Second Place
Women Direct, Ithaca, NY   March 2000
Women in the Directors Chair, Chicago, IL   March 2000
Colossal Film Crawl, Columbia, SC   September 1999 Awarded First Place, Best in Show
UFVA Conference, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA   August 1999

Verdant Hills:   Healing Nature, Sustaining Life (1998, 20 minutes, digital video) Director/Editor/DP.  
A documentary about sustainable agriculture in the rural Philippines.

Various screenings before congressional committees in the Philippines and United States.   This video is still circulating as an educational tool for rural communities in the Philippines.

director of photography credits

Open Secret (2011)
A documentary about family secrets in a small, Kansas town.   Directed by Steven Lickteig.

Portrait of Turner (2009) Portrait of Turner re-enacts Shirley Clarke’s original screen experiment, Portrait of Jason.

Incoming Messages (2008) A video essay/melodrama about the cultural history of analog answering machines.   Produced and Directed by Irene Gustafson.