Laura Kissel

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Laura Kissel
Born (1969-05-29) May 29, 1969 (age 54)
Occupation(s)Filmmaker, Educator
Notable workCotton Road

Laura K. Kissel (born May 29, 1969) is an American educator and documentary filmmaker based in Columbia, South Carolina.[1] Kissel's work explores contemporary social and political landscapes, the representation of history and the use of orphan films.[2]

Her award winning feature documentary Cotton Road (2014) is about the commodity of cotton and the human labor required to transform it as it travels from farms and factories to consumers.

Education[edit]

Kissel graduated from Manhattan High School in Manhattan, Kansas. She received her bachelor of science degree in cinema and photography from Ithaca College in 1991. She then went on to receive a master of fine arts degree in radio-TV-film from Northwestern University in 1999.[3][4] Following graduation she relocated to Columbia, South Carolina having accepted an assistant professor position at the University of South Carolina.[5]

Career[edit]

Kissel is drawn towards the use of the long take in documentary film and video, which she sees as a discovery process, enabled by the duration of the frame, to uncover the nature of things in an exercise for clarity.[6] Her choice to use filmmaking as a way of engaging with the world and exploring questions about culture, memory, and historical representation is evident in themes throughout her work.[7] Her films have been screened at the Black Maria Film Festival, the Atlanta Film Festival and the Library of Congress' Mary Pickford Theater.[5]

Kissel is a Professor of Media Arts and Film and Media Studies at the University of South Carolina where she serves as the Director of the School of Visual Art and Design.[8] She has worked to create an inventory of Helen Hill's films in effort to preserve her legacy.[9] Kissel first met Hill at the University of South Carolina’s Orphan Film Symposium, where Hill gave a presentation on her experiences with saving her artistic film works after Hurricane Katrina.[10]

Over the course of her career Kissel has received numerous awards and fellowships for her work, including a Fulbright Award, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship and funding from the South Carolina Humanities Council and the Fledgling Fund.[11] Kissel was named as the South Carolina Arts Commission Media Arts Fellow in 2008.[4] In 2018 she was given a Distinguished Research Service Award by the University of South Carolina.[12][13]

Cotton Road[edit]

Her 2014 documentary Cotton Road tells a global story about the commodity of cotton following its life cycle alongside the human labor required to transform it as it travels from farms and factories to consumers. It has been honored with eight festival awards and been exhibited around the world in film and video festivals, at community events on sustainability, and in classrooms. Available in four languages, Cotton Road is now the cornerstone of an educational campaign by the NGO Pro Ethical Trade Finland where it’s used to promote equitable global trade, sustainable production and responsible consumption. It was included in South Carolina Educational Television’s inaugural season of the public television show Reel South and has been broadcast on more than 75 national public television stations, including in the major markets of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.[14]

Filmography[edit]

Year Title Role Description
1991 Campaign For Full Citizenship[15] Producer/Director/Editor/Director of Photography Short Film
1998 Verdant Hills: Healing Nature, Sustaining Life[16] Director/Editor/Director of Photography Short Film
1999 Leaving Bristol[17] Producer/Director/Editor/Director of Photography Short Film
2001 Aviatrix:Women Aviators of the Silent and Sound Era[18] Editor Short Film
2002 Vivian's Beauty Shop[7] Producer/Director/Editor/ Director of Photography Short Film
2005 Cabin Field[19] Producer/Director/Editor/ Director of Photography Feature Film
2007 Unfettering the Falcons[20] Co-Director/Co-Producer Short Film
2008 Beyond the Classroom: CHINA[21] Director/Editor/Director of Photography Short Film
2008 Incoming Messages[22] Director of Photography Short Film
2009 Portrait of Turner[23] Director of Photography Short Film
2009 Open Secret[11] Director of Photography Feature Film
2011 Window Cleaning in Shanghai[24] Director/Editor/Director of Photography Short Film
2011 Tan Mian Hua[25] Director/Editor/Director of Photography Short Film
2011 htar tar (weaving) Director/Editor/Director of Photography Short Film
2012 May Day Director/Editor/Director of Photography Short Film
2014 Cotton Road[26] Producer/Director/Editor/ Director of Photography Feature Film
2014 May River Oysters[27] Director/Editor/Director of Photography Short Film

Bibliography[edit]

  • Kissel, Laura (2002). "The Research Value of Amateur Films: Integrating the Use of Amateur and Found Footage into a Film Production Course". The Moving Image. 2 (2): 153–157. JSTOR 41167090.
  • Kissel, Laura (June 2003). "Lost, found and remade: an interview with archivist and filmmaker Carolyn Faber". Film History. 15 (2): 208–213. doi:10.2979/FIL.2003.15.2.208. JSTOR 3815512.
  • Kissel, Laura (December 2008). "The Terrain of the Long Take". Journal of Visual Culture. 7 (3): 349–361. doi:10.1177/1470412908096341. S2CID 145325835.
  • Kissel, Laura (2009). "Disability is Us: Remembering, Recovering, and Remaking the Image of Disability". Filming Difference. pp. 17–40. doi:10.7560/719231-003. ISBN 978-0-292-79355-2. S2CID 243782592.
  • Kissel, Laura (2016). "The Memory Project and Other Ways of Knowing: Filmmaking, Affect and Embodied Knowledge". In Pickowicz, Paul G.; Zhang, Yingjin (eds.). Filming the Everyday: Independent Documentaries in Twenty-First-Century China. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 99–118. ISBN 978-1-4422-7025-1.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "documentary films". Laura Kissel.
  2. ^ "CUCALORUS :: Annual Festival of Independent Film". www.cucalorus.org.
  3. ^ "Laura Kissel – bio and vita". laurakissel.com.
  4. ^ a b "SC Arts Commission 2008 Media Production Fellow". The South Carolina Arts Commission. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  5. ^ a b "Movies And Cotton – And Movies About Cotton". Jasper Magazine. 3 (3): 6. 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  6. ^ Kissel, Laura (2008). "The Terrain of the Long Take" (PDF). Journal of Visual Culture. 7 (3): 349–361. doi:10.1177/1470412908096341. S2CID 145325835. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2017.
  7. ^ a b "First Annual TFMS Film Series: Experimental Documentary – Theater, Film, and Media Studies". 4 May 2008.
  8. ^ "Laura Kissel – College of Arts and Sciences". sc.edu. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  9. ^ "Helen Hill -her films". www.helenhill.org.
  10. ^ Bland, David Travis (4 January 2017). "10 Years After Her Tragic Death, the Legacy of Columbia-Native Filmmaker Helen Hill Remains Vital".
  11. ^ a b "Filmmakers – Open Secret – A Documentary By Steve Lickteig". www.opensecretfilm.com.
  12. ^ Crum, Meghan (22 April 2018). "Director of visual art and design receives new research service award at USC". The Daily Gamecock. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  13. ^ "New Distinguished Research Service Award Honors Dedicated Faculty – Office of the Vice President for Research". www.sc.edu. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  14. ^ "actions". Cotton Road.
  15. ^ Laura Kissel (1 May 1991). "Campaign For Full Citizenship" – via Internet Archive.
  16. ^ "commissioned and collaborative documentary work". Laura Kissel.
  17. ^ "Laura Kissel – Leaving Bristol". laurakissel.com.
  18. ^ "Orphans of the Storm". www.sc.edu.
  19. ^ Zay, Julia (21 August 2007). "Cabin Field (review)". The Moving Image. 7 (1): 124–127. doi:10.1353/mov.2007.0036. S2CID 191618213.
  20. ^ "UNFETTERING THE FALCONS". www.ozarkfoothillsfilmfest.org.
  21. ^ "ARCHIVES – Southern Lens". legacy.scetv.org.
  22. ^ "incomingmessages". arts.ucsc.edu.
  23. ^ "gustafson projects". artsites.ucsc.edu.
  24. ^ "Window Cleaning in Shanghai – Selected for Film Expo – School of Visual Art & Design – College of Arts and Sciences". artsandsciences.sc.edu.
  25. ^ "Flahertiana / Tan Mian Hua". eng.flahertiana.ru.
  26. ^ Hare, Glenn. "UofSC professor films the "Cotton Road"". University of South Carolina.
  27. ^ "May River Oysters". 16 January 2015.
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