Laura Kissel

DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION | VITA & BIO | academic

DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION
& Director of Photgraphy credits

Cotton Road (in post production)

Open Secret (release: late 2010)
director of photography
directed by Steve Lickteig

Portrait of Turner (2009)
director of photography
Directed by Irene Gustafson

Incoming Messages (2007)
director of photography
Directed by Irene Gustafson

Beyond the Classroom: China (2008)

Unfettering the Falcons (2007)

Cabin Field (2005)

Finding Lula (2002)

Vivian's Beauty Shop (2001)

Leaving Bristol (1999)

Verdant Hills: Healing Nature, Sustaining Life (1998)

Cabin Field
produced, directed, edited by L. Kissel
video/cinematography: L. Kissel, H. Mehltretter
sound design and music: Joe Milutis
additional music written and recorded by Jason Treuting and Lawson White

high resolution images | press booklet

digital video + 16mm film, TRT: 40:00

This experimental, non-fiction explores the site of Cabin Field, a mile-long stretch of agricultural land in Crisp County, Georgia. Through the memories of land owners, farmers, residents and agricultural laborers past and present, "Cabin Field" examines evidence both visible and submerged, material and ephemeral. Physical evidence of Native American inhabitance, the economic structure of sharecropping and the mechanization of agriculture combine with fading memories; scientific and agricultural surveys reveal old home sites and the changing contours of cabin field; and archival film images of rural Georgia emerge as fragments of evidence to comment on our understanding of race, gender and the construction of place. Ultimately, "Cabin Field" weaves a portrait of a place as a palimpsest -- multifaceted, complex, layered, ever changing.

Awards
Honorable Mention, Rural Route Film Festival 2005
Jury Citation Award, Black Maria Film and Video Festival 2006
Best Documentary, Delta International Film and Video Festival 2006
Invited Featured Artist, 25th Anniversary of Women Direct 2006

Published Review
The Moving Image Journal, Vol. 7 Spring 2007 | download

Curated in: Oxford American Southern Movie DVD issue

Select screenings:
St. Mary's College of Maryland Experimental Documentary Series
NEH Exhibition The American Farm at Old Independence Regional Museum
ATHICA Athens, GA
"Ruburbs and Other Spaces Inbetween: Land Use and Environmentalism"
Ozark Foothills Film Festival Little Rock, Arkansas
Villa Julie College Stevenson, MD
Creative Alliance Baltimore, MD
North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC
Bickett Gallery Raleigh, NC
Atlanta Film and Video Festival Landmark Midtown Art, Atlanta, GA
Black Maria Film and Video Festival
911 Media Arts Center Seattle, WA
Pacific Northwest College of Art Portland, OR
Evergreen State College Olympia, WA
Delta International Film and Video Festival Cleveland, MS
Balgan Experimental Film & Video Series, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Eyedrum Atlanta, GA
Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival Ithaca, NY
Echo Park Film Center LA, CA
SCETV Southern Lens broadcast 3.2.2006 and 6.15.2006
Anthology Film Archives NYC
Georgia State University Atlanta, GA
University of Georgia Athens, GA
University Film and Video Association Chicago, IL
Appalshop Whitesburg, KY
Library of Congress, Mary Pickford Theater Washington, DC