Rice Alum wins Emmy
Mark Brice ’80 has slept under the stars in Africa, crossed through war zones in Burundi, trailed an anti-kidnapping unit in Brazil and lived aboard an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.
Last fall, Brice’s trajectory brought him to Hollywood to accept an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for Reality Programming for his work on the PBS film “Carrier.” A 10-hour series produced by Mel Gibson, “Carrier” follows a six-month deployment of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier during the Iraq War.
Brice’s remarkable journey began when Rice Media Center Director James Blue walked into his high school classroom some 30 years ago. “Blue showed us a 16-millimeter film he shot in Africa and talked about what he did,” Brice recalled. “I thought, ‘I want to do that.’ The Media Center at Rice was my launching pad.”
The documentary medium rarely takes comfort and safety into account.
Spending hours and hours synching audio and video wasn’t without pressure, but Brice loved it, and his dedication attracted attention.
“I would see him late at night in the editing room focused on his work,” said Brian Huberman, chair of the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts, “and it was clear that he was committed to filmmaking.”
“You try to capture things that few have ever witnessed before. I’ve seen the Pacific Ocean where it’s seven miles deep – it’s a color blue you can’t describe.”
—Mark Brice
Sometimes that commitment has taken extreme forms. In making a film about racial violence spurred by an incident on the Texas coast, Brice, Huberman and a cameraman drove around back roads at night, unarmed, to film a Ku Klux Klan induction rally. Upon arriving, they were immediately surrounded by men with rifles.
“I had a really good chance to see him in action,” Huberman said with a laugh, adding that it was one of the most memorable experiences he’s had as a teacher.
Since then, Huberman has had other opportunities to see Brice in action — most recently when they worked together on A&E’s “First 48,” which Brice has produced for two years. The series follows homicide detectives as they try to solve murder cases.
Brice admits that the documentary medium rarely takes comfort and safety into account.
“The challenge of making a documentary is finding a way to do your best work and be open to discovery when you are uncomfortable, when you’re not eating right, when it’s 110 degrees and there’s no shade in sight, when the weather is fogging up your goggles on an aircraft carrier and you have no way of knowing exactly what kind of picture you’re shooting.”
But Brice doesn’t complain. Instead he talks about the awe he’s felt and the privileges he’s had.
“If you really like what you’re doing, those trying conditions are all worth it for the chance at the best pictures ever,” Brice said. “You try to capture things that few have ever witnessed before. I’ve seen the Pacific Ocean where it’s seven miles deep — it’s a color blue you can’t describe.”