Her eight documentaries have been screened at various festivals, museums, galleries, and libraries, and North Carolina Public Television. Her second film, Sam McMillan: The Dot Man, was named Best Independent Documentary at the Carolina Film and Video Festival in 2003, and Tom Whitaker: Potter at Large won the Audience Award and Best Documentary at HPIFF in 2004. Her film Martha in Lattimore premiered at the Real to Reel Film Festival (where it won Best Documentary) and was also an Official Selection of SILVERDOCS: AFI-Discovery Channel Documentary Festival in 2006. (See www.marthainlattimore.com for more information.)

Mary has a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies and an M.A. in Broadcasting/Cinema from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She earned her undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University where she holds the appointments Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Fellow and Associate Professor of Communication. A revised and expanded edition of her book, The Hollywood Curriculum: Teachers in the Movies has been published along with a volume she co-edited with Laura R. Linder, The Sitcom Reader: America Viewed and Skewed. Mary's other professional activities are wide-ranging.

Mary lives in Jamestown, NC with her son. She collects Southern folk pottery (specifically face jugs) and primitive antiques. Her interests include cooking, knitting, gardening, reading fiction, seeing movies, and following the progress of her former students.