Cooper cultivates USC's study of film culture
By Chris Secrest
Dr. Mark Cooper responds in jest regarding the "scenic" view from his new office on the second floor of the old NewsFilm Library at 707 Catawba St. A vacant lot lies across the way.
He switches on his laptop and surveys the desolate landscape outside his window. "At least it won't distract me from my work," Cooper said. The amiable associate professor swivels back around, his eyes lighting up. "Now, how may I be of assistance?"
As a film and media studies scholar, he was appointed interim director of the newly renamed Moving Image Research Collection in July 2009 for a period of two years. "University Libraries and the College of Arts and Sciences wanted to expand the scope and the reach of their collection," said Cooper. "With me in this position, we can work across different areas: studies, production, and archival research. That constellation of interests
working together makes this an exciting place to be."
Cooper thinks of the collection as "a major national archive." The almost 22 million feet of material includes the Fox Movietone News and early newsreels from South Carolina television. But that isn't everything that their shelves hold. "We changed our name because we wanted people to know that we hold different types of material," said Cooper. "One change was accepting a gift from the nationalized film industry of the People's Republic of China. It's not made up of news film. Yet, it does fit with our mission of providing people with an alternative perspective of global media history."
Cooper can also use the archive as a tool to further students' comprehension by integrating archive resources into his own lectures. "An example that I've used is a clip where Eleanor Roosevelt takes a trip to
Puerto Rico," he said. "David Grubin uses this in a famous documentary about Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Because we have an archive from which that footage was drawn, I can show the entire outtakes reel. Students can then start to ask questions about how Grubin in his selection crafted the story."
He is also interested in breaking down barriers to cross-departmental cooperation. "One exciting thing is how I might use the expertise that I have in film and media studies to get my colleagues across campus to utilize
the resources [at the Moving Image Research Collection]," said Cooper.
"I recently spoke to fellow faculty members along campus about how they could support their research and teaching projects by taking advantage of our archival materials that are unique and freely available."
"Even when the class reading for a given day would leave me with a headache, he always managed to have an example that would make it click," said Anna Lane, junior and former pupil of Cooper's. "You don't really think about the lasting effects of the cinematography of a Nazi propaganda film until you see it juxtaposed with Star Wars."
Cooper received his doctorate from Brown University in 1998. He left Florida State University three years ago, disappointed with their lack of collaboration and allocation of faculty resources. He now educates students on various aspects of film culture at the University of South Carolina, having written two books about it and is working on a third.
"Love Rules" came from a conviction that "although everyone was eager to say that cinema had a huge effect on US culture in the 20th century, what exactly that effect was always seemed kind of nebulous." "Universal
Women" deals with "why after 1919 Universal Studios shut down the pipeline that they established to promote women to direct." A third book has entered the early stages of research but is on hold for now.
Anna Lane described the Cooper as able to "relate the most convoluted process." She said that he often delighted in pushing students past their "intellectual comfort zone," but without coming off as condescending.
"He tries to tone that whole 'Ph.D. from Brown' thing down to the level of overwhelmed undergrads," said Lane.
Cooper counts himself lucky for a number of students like Anna Lane. "I didn't know that there would be so many interesting students with passion to learn," he said. "I was surprised when I came to visit and that interest has only continued to grow." RCT
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