Over the past 20 years, Chisolm has traveled world wide to capture reality on film. An accomplished cinematographer and filmmaker, he won an Emmy Award in 1998 for Don't Say Goodbye, a National Geographic special about endangered species. Closer to home, he served as director of photography for ABC's six-part documentary, Hopkins 24/7, about Johns Hopkins Hospital and worked as a camera operator for the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Streets.

Chisolm uses his talents with light, motion and subject matter to create what one producer calls "visual poetry." His many projects include a permanent video wall exhibit for the Smithsonian called The Information Age and documentaries on the Iran-Contra affair, fetal surgery and Vietnam veterans. Aside from documentaries, he has created a variety of commercials, feature films, TV specials, corporate and educational projects and has worked for NBC, the BBC, PBS and the Discovery Channel. Two of Chisolm's current endeavors include a documentary on mediation and a time-lapse documentary about the creation of a cultural center in Japan.

"Developing my own major at UMBC helped me become a filmmaker," says Chisolm, "and I've continued a lifestyle of interdisciplinary learning. One day I might be in a coal mine, next in the White House and next with people fighting a war."

Chisolm, who started making films in high school, says it was natural for him to attend UMBC. "My dad was an architect who helped start the campus," says Chisolm. "UMBC was a young university then--it was somewhat unknown and creatively chaotic--but the visual arts department was up-and-coming and had lots of resources." UMBC also had the "incredible" Barbara Ireland, associate director of the interdisciplinary studies program, then called Option 2. "She helped me make a strong case for my film major proposal," says Chisolm.

Filmmaker William Whiteford is director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Video Press. A creator of inspiring work for more than 20 years, Whiteford has received six regional Emmy Awards for best documentary and for achievement in directing and cinematography. His film, King Gimp, is winner of the 1999 Academy Award in the category of documentary short subject and a 2001 Peabody Award.

Whiteford specializes in films that celebrate the human spirit, such as King Gimp, which is the in-depth portrait of a young artist with cerebral palsy. He works with his creative partner, Susan Hannah Hadary, co-producer of King Gimp and collaborator on more than a dozen films. Their first documentary, Dominick and Margaret, followed the inspirational lives of two elderly individuals who maintained an independent lifestyle, despite serious medical conditions. Currently, they are producing a mini-series for Discovery Health called Med School, which was filmed at the University of Maryland Medical School.

Before enrolling at UMBC, Whiteford served two years with the U.S. Army in Germany, earned an associates degree and taught filmmaking in Montgomery County. But, it was at UMBC were he perfected his craft. "I came to UMBC because it had the best film program in the area," says Whiteford. "It was at UMBC where I had the opportunity to spend many hours in the editing room, putting together films," says Whiteford. "I was exposed to professors who had made films and I enjoyed the opportunity to design my own studies."

When they speak of winning the Distiguished Alumnus Award, both feel honored to have been chosen. "I deeply appreciate this honor," says Chisolm, "and I see it as a symbol of UMBC's acceptance of progressive and non-traditional life choices made by its past and present students." Whiteford has a similar appreciation. "I'm honored to receive this award from UMBC." So honored, in fact, that he passed on getting tickets to the Academy Awards, realizing too late that the UMBC event was April 26, not March 26.

Denise Elizabeth Lee is a former writer and webmaster with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and recently completed a master's degree in information studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.