MIRC Staff

Mark Garrett Cooper

Interim Director

Mark has a BA in American Studies from Wesleyan University and a MA and PhD in American Civilization from Brown University. He is a Professor of Film and Media Studies and English. When not engaged in archival initiatives, Mark teaches film and media history and conducts research on the institutional causes and consequences of Hollywood cinema. He has published two books and numerous articles.

Heather Heckman

Assistant Director and Curator, Regional Films and Science and Nature Films

Heather comes from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), where she was Interim Assistant Director of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. Heather is finishing her PhD in Communication Arts at UW, where she also earned MAs in Library and Information Studies and Communication Arts. Her publications include "Burn After Viewing, or, Fire in the Vaults: Nitrate Decomposition and Combustibility" (The American Archivist, Winter 2010) and a forthcoming article on Technicolor design in John Ford's Drums Along the Mohawk.

Lydia Pappas

Assistant Director and Curator, Regional Films and Chinese Film Collection

Lydia comes to South Carolina from the UK, by way of Stanford University Libraries Special Collections. Lydia spent many years working in various libraries in London including as film archivist for the City of London at London Metropolitan Archives, and as librarian at The Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal London Hospital. She has a BSc in Library Science from London Metropolitan University and a MA in Film Archiving from the University of East Anglia, Norwich. Lydia likes walking in the woods with her dog, folk music, cooking and the color purple (the colour not the film.)

Greg Wilsbacher

Curator, Newsfilm Collections

Greg earned his PhD in English from Indiana University and an MLIS from the University of South Carolina. His publications include, "Forgotten History?: The Value of Newsreel Libraries" (The Chronicle Review, 2009) and "Al Brick: The Forgotten Newsreel Man At Pearl Harbor" (The Moving Image, 2010). Currently, he is at work on a history of the original Fox silent newsreel, Fox News.

Ben Singleton

Production Manager

Ben has a Master of Mass Communications degree, as well as many years of experience at MIRC in all aspects of its workflows, and keeps a steady hand on the tiller steering MIRC through both rough and smooth production times. His interests include baroque music and realization of thoroughbass on guitar, jaguar motor vehicle maintenance, and oil painting techniques of the 17th century.

Scott Allen

Colorist

A 1990 graduate of the University of South Carolina, Scott has worked at MIRC since it was called the Newsfilm Library, and is the expert operator of the telecine machine, as well as knowledgeable of the collections that pass through the transfer suite under his steady hand and eye. From these years of experience, he believes that far too many "software solutions" are no solutions at all – and result mostly in forced quits and re-boots.

Sarah Rice

Colorist

Sarah graduated in 2010 with a BA in Media Arts and Film and Media Studies from the University of South Carolina. Her love of silent film brought her to MIRC where she started part time as a student and is now employed full time. Sarah's enthusiasm for film, both old and new, as well as her experiences in the transfer suite, working with all formats of film, video and digital assets, brings inspiration to the archives.

Stan Lollis

Archivist

Stan, 'the nitrate man', takes care of the vast nitrate collections at MIRC, with due diligence and care of this format, in the manner to which it deserves. With love and attention, the nitrate film under his care can be prepared for transfer and long term storage, to best preserve it for many generations to come. Stan has worked at MIRC for a number of years and has acute knowledge of nitrate film and the Fox Movietone collection. He has a fondness for music, especially jazz, in its many different forms.

Yongli Li

Chinese Film Archivist

A native of Shanghai,Youngli Li earned a bachelor degree from the Communication University of China (formerly known as Beijing Broadcasting Institute) and completed her M.A. in International Film Studies from Beijing Film Academy. She has been working on the Chinese Film Collection for over two years, cataloguing hundreds of films and making them accessible to non-Chinese speakers. She has also been programming the Chinese Film Festival for the local art house Nickelodeon since 2010 and has been responsible for screening many films from the Collection to the people of Columbia.

Cherrie Brown

Administrative Assistant

Cherrie joined the MIRC team in March 2012. Prior to joining MIRC, she worked in the Administrative Offices of  the Thomas Cooper Library, where she made many good friends amongst the faculty, staff, and students. Cherrie provides essential office support and facilitates the organization of team members and visitors.

Brittany Braddock

Film Scanning Technician

A Columbia, SC native, Brittany earned her BA in Media Arts, with a focus in film, from the University of South Carolina in 2011. She currently supports a software-development project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities by creating high definition scans of optical soundtracks. Brittany works with the nitrate film collections here at MIRC and enjoys handling the decades-old 35mm films that she guides through the Kinetta film scanner with great patience and skill.

Students and Interns