Major Research Tools

Academic Video Online (AVON) Premium

Visual Resource

Collection of streaming video (documentaries, interviews, feature films, performances, news programs and newsreels, demonstrations, and raw footage) covering a range of disciplines, including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, and music.


Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text

Full-Text, Index

Index of journal articles and books on film and media studies. Includes some full text.


Kanopy Streaming

Visual Resource

Streaming video platform containing over 27,000 documentaries, feature films, and training videos. Includes such producers as the Criterion Collection, PBS, HBO, Kino Lorber, and the Media Education Foundation.


MLA International Bibliography

Index

Coverage: 1884-present

Index of scholarly articles, edited books, and dissertations on literature, languages, film studies and folklore. Includes MLA Directory of Periodicals, which provides detailed information on periodicals covering literature and languages. For help searching MLA, see our Search Guide.


Swank Digital Campus

Visual Resource

Streaming access to major motion pictures for educational purposes only. This link will allow instructors to request films for classes (login required) and allow all other users to access those films that have been licensed.


Other Suggested Research Tools

AFI Catalog

Detailed information about all American films made from 1893-1993 and basic documentation on films produced since 1993. Searchable by subject and genre as well as title, director, actor, etc.


AllMovie

Full-Text

Database of film and video plot summaries, biographies, and filmographies.


Box Office Guru

Data

Box office data on films released since 1989. Includes ranked data for each season, reviews of weekends at the box office from 1997 to the present, and a list of top grossing films.


China Film Yearbook

Full-Text

Coverage: 1981-2011

Annual coverage of major Chinese film productions and events, including statistical data.


Classical Music in Movies

Full-Text

Audio collection of classical music in movies, listed by title of movie.


Folkstreams: The Best of American Folklore Film

Full-Text

Collection of documentary films about American folk and roots culture, with an emphasis on southern life and music. Provided by UNC-Chapel Hill.


Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Encyclopedia - Archive

Full-Text, Reference

Encyclopedia of GLBTQ art, literature, film, music, and popular culture. The encyclopedia was closed and archived in 2015.


Humanities and Social Sciences Index Retrospective

Index

Coverage: 1907-1984

Index of major journals in the humanities and social sciences.


Internet Archive: Moving Image Archive

Gateway, Visual Resource

Gateway to a variety of film and video collections, including a collection of newsreels produced from 1929-1967 and short, ephemeral films from the Prelinger Archive documenting everyday life, culture, industry, and institutions in the United States from 1927 to 1987.


Internet Movie Database

Full-Text

Database with detailed information about films and the people who make them, including plot summaries, complete cast listings, and box office data.


Media History Digital Library

Full-Text

Digitized collection of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.


Metacritic: Movies

Full-Text
Reviews of current films, including mainstream, foreign and independent releases. Metacritic editors scan newspapers and magazines for reviews, then convert and compile them into a "Metascore" indicating the critical consensus. All time high and low scores are available for films released 1999 to present. Includes a handy directory of recently nominated and award winning films.

Mosfilm Online Cinema

Visual Resource

Soviet films, with subtitles, from the archive of the Mosfilm studio in Moscow. Many are unfamiliar to western audiences. 


Platino Educa

Visual Resource

330+ streaming Spanish-language films from Spain and the Americas


Russian Film Hub

Gateway to over 350 freely available Soviet and Russian films. Films can be browsed by genre, decade, country of production, or subtitle (the site emphasizes hosting films with subtitles available).


Silent Era: The Silent Film Website

Full-Text

Information about the people behind and in front of the cameras of silent films. Includes filmographies and reviews of books about the era. There is also a list of silent films that are presumed lost.


Socialism on Film: The Cold War and International Propaganda

Visual Resource
Coverage: Early 1900s - 1980s

Documentaries and newsreels produced across the USSR, and in China, Vietnam, UK, and Latin America throughout the course of the 20th Century.