Associate Professor of Media Arts: The Moving Image, Film Production, Documentary Production

Current research: Recently completed films include “Beyond the Classroom: China” (2007, 30 min.), an educational documentary about student travel in China; “Unfettering the Falcons” (2007, 8 min.) an award winning short documentary produced for the International Documentary Challenge; and “Cabin Field” (2006, 40 min.), a documentary essay about social and cultural change evidenced on the landscape of a cotton field in Georgia. Kissel is in post production on “Disability Is Us”, a documentary about media representations of disability and began production on “Cotton Road” in 2008, a documentary about the global movement of the commodity of cotton.

Bio:

Laura Kissel is a documentary filmmaker and media artist. Kissel has received numerous fellowships and grants for her work, including a Fulbright Award (2009), a MacDowell Fellowship (2006) and funding from the South Carolina Humanities Council (2003 and 2008). She was named the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Media Arts Fellow for 2007-2008. Her documentary work explores issues surrounding landscape use and meaning, the representation of history, and the use of orphan films. Her nonfiction work, Cabin Field, has been honored with three festival awards including the Jurors’ Citation Award at the 2006 Black Maria Film and Video Festival. Her media projects in progress include a documentary about disability rights and a documentary on South Carolina cotton and globalization. Kissel received her MFA in Radio-TV-Film from Northwestern University in 1999.

News:

August 2008: “Beyond the Classroom: China” will have its broadcast premiere on SCETV’s program Southern Lens, August 7, 2008.

June 2008: “Beyond the Classroom: China” receives a 2008 CINE Golden Eagle Award

March 2008: “Beyond the Classroom: China” wins three 2008 Telly Awards: a Silver Telly for Best in Education Video; a Bronze for Videography and for Travel/Tourism Video.