San Mateo, CA; October 11, 2007— Michelle Brown, an associate professor of broadcast & electronic media at College of San Mateo, was recognized recently for her cinematography and editing on “Slippery Shiny Feathery Things” at The Berkeley Video & Film Festival 2007. Earlier this month, Brown and local poet LaDonna Witmer received the Grand Festival Award in the Arts category for their collaborative work in cinépoetry. The creative team won the award for the second consecutive year.

What is cinépoetry? “Think of it as a cinematic poetry reading, in the same way that a music video is cinematic even though it emerges from a non-visual art form,” said Brown, who has been working for the last few years with her creative partner Witmer to develop a series of cinépoems based on Witmer’s poetry. “Slippery Shiny Feathery Things” is a 10-minute collection of three cinépoems: “Delusions of Daedalus,”  “Elasticine” and “Die Pretty,” all written and performed by Witmer. The ever-growing collection of cinépoems can be viewed on the poet’s website at www.ladonnawitmer.com.

Late last year, Brown and Witmer won the Best Female Filmmaker 2006 award at the Poppy Jasper Shorts Festival in Morgan Hill. The duo’s entry was entitled “The Way She Walks,” which is a collection of cinematic poetry about the female experience.

In October of 2006, the creative team received its first Grand Festival Award in the Arts category at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival 2006 for the cinépoem “TwoFaced.”

To interview Brown, please contact her at 650.524.6934 or brownm@smccd.edu.

For more information about CSM, please visit collegeofsanmateo.edu.