Mary S. Lopez

• Media Studies, UNCG

Although Mary Lopez is a filmmaker with both documentary and narrative interests, her most prolific works are historical documentaries. Prior to her thesis work, The Walled City of Charles Town (2011), and its companion piece of research interviews, Diggin’ History in South Carolina (2010), she has been recognized for several documentaries of local and regional interests. Her 2010 practicum work, Honest, Abe. Is exhibited at The Bostic Lincoln Center Museum in Bostic, North Carolina. She won a Home Boxoffice Award of Merit through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for her collaborative work, Remembering Those Who Forget (2003), outlining the need for Alzheimer care. Lopez has produced two films about the City of Shelby, North Carolina, carrousel restoration: Restoring the Dream (1997), funded by a North Carolina Regional Artist Grant, and Dream Come True (2003), recognized by The National Carrousel Association. Meet Me at the Waterwheel (1999), and Fair Memories (2007), document the historic Cleveland County Fair in Shelby, North Carolina. Norme in the Air (2009) is the story of a centarian former bi-plane pilot. Mary Lopez began her interest in recording images when she was given a Brownie Star Flash camera as a child. Her first career was projectionist and manger of movie theatres, where she excelled for eight years. She has worked in media advertising for over twenty years, writing, directing, and producing commercials for television. While in graduate school, she served as Executive Producer for Spartan Television, the University of North Carolina Greensboro campus station. She currently teaches media production, media aesthetics, screenwriting, and film history.