Several wooden and wire fences once stood on Cabin Field, an agricultural site in Crisp County, Georgia. The fences were removed almost thirty years ago, yet recent satellite images of the field reveal where they used to stand, like scars on the surface of the land. The fences seem to magically appear in these ghostly, scientific images, like recurring memories. This evidence, though invisible to the naked eye, reveals a history of this place that illustrates how the land has been used and consumed by those who own or labor upon it.

On the surface of the American landscape, there is profound evidence of our collective history and a revealing portrait of our current values. The landscapes that we build and the landscapes that we remember are evocative locations, and never static. They are also sites of struggle and change.

This experimental, non-fiction film 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. 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, like fragments of evidence from the ruins of history and memory, 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.

"Like archeologists we are confronted with artifacts of the past that provide direct connection to the present. Kissel has taken on this role of cinematic archeologist in an interesting and challenging way through her use of abstractions that collide with the direct evidence of images captured on film as she peels back the layers of time."---Adrianne Carageorge, Rochester Institute of Technology (excerpted from UFVA Conference review)

Awards and other recognition:
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
2006Invited Featured Artist, 25th Anniversary of Women Direct 2006