Michelle Bauer Carpenter is an Assistant Professor of Digital Design in the College of Arts & Media at the University of Colorado Denver. Carpenter has produced, directed and edited award winning experimental and documentary pieces. Her video pieces have screened in numerous international and national film festivals and art galleries.

Michelle’s prior non-profit work experience with Free Speech TV includes collaboration with grassroots organizations and larger institutions including the Getty Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Roosevelt Institute, Human Rights Watch International, among others. She has received numerous grants including her recent Colorado Council on the Grant and Arts Fellowship.

Thanks to the talents of supervising sound editor David Bondelevitch, MPSE, CAS, Above the Ashes was nominated for a prestigious MPSE GOLDEN REEL Award for BEST SOUND EDITING: SHORT FORM DOCUMENTARY. Above the Ashes is in competition with Man Made – “Bugatti Super Car”and Tim Tebow: Everything In Between.

The 59th Golden Reel Award ceremony took place in Los Angeles, California on February 19, 2012.

Above the Ashes broadcast on Colorado Public Television in the late Fall of 2011.

Above the Ashes will re-broadcast on Colorado Public Television, Channel 12 in Spring of 2012.

Above the Ashes has been submitted to national, international and numerous regional film festivals including Indie Spirit Film Festival in Colorado Springs, Breckenridge Festival of Films and Telluride Mountain Film Festival. 

Above the Ashes documents the Fourmile fire through the eyes of Sunshine residents who refused to evacuate and joined together to fight the Fourmile fire. Their heroic actions saved numerous homes in the historic Sunshine community. Using haunting visuals Above the Ashes reveals tales of bravery, family, friends, loss and the rebuilding of a community.

2010 Recipient of the Colorado Council on the Arts Grant for Artists & Organizations for CAM ArtsBridge.

CAM Artsbridge is an amazing union Arts and Media faculty mentors, BFA student scholars, K-12 educators and K-12 students. CAM ArtsBridge provides university students with hands-on arts teaching experience by placing them in the classroom as mentors and instructors. CAM’s student scholars are asked to create connections between arts and other academic areas. Connecting academics to art helps make sense of our world, culture and its systems.

The University of Colorado Denver, College of Arts & Media, includes the departments of Visual Arts, Music Performance and Music Industry Studies, Theatre, Film and Television Production. This range of creative diversity allows CAM ArtsBridge the ability to offer innovative interdisciplinary programs that range in artistic content.

The Colorado Council on the Arts is now know as Colorado Creative Industries. Colorado Creative Industries was created in July 2010 by merging the Colorado Council on the Arts, the Office of Film, Television and Media and the state’s Art in Public Places Program.