Notice!
Swem Library has adopted a new platform for the presentation and organization of subject guides. Although still a work in progress, a new and improved subject guide for Film Studies can be found at
http://guides.swem.wm.edu/film. The guide on this page will be phased out Fall 2008.
About
This Subject Guide contains links to a few key indexes in Film Studies plus significant online resources and print materials housed in the Library’s first floor reference section. Web Resources below contains links to sites with substantial academic content. These may assist you on research papers and other class assignments as well as lead to additional useful sites. Look at the Library's Databases for many other valuable scholarly databases in the natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. For more web resources, try a Google Scholar search with appropriate keywords for your specific needs.
Liaison
Liaison in charge: Troy Davis
Research: Getting Started @ Swem
Database/Article Indexes and Online Catalogs
- NEW -FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Plus (FIAF Index to Film Periodicals Plus is a bibliographical resource offering coverage of hundreds of the world's foremost academic and popular film journals right up to the present day. Many of these key titles are available here in full text including complete runs.) Download list of periodicals indexed (excel)| Download list of periodicals AND in full-text (excel)
- NEW - Film Indexes Online (Film Index International (indexing of over 121,600 films - from the first silent movies to the latest blockbusters - and biographical information for more than 737,000 personalities) and AFI atalog (AmCerican film information for the years 1893–1971).
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Print Resources
Background Information/Plot Summaries
Some Useful Subjects
Bibliographies/Indexes of Critical Reviews and Articles
Journals
Web Resources
- All-Movie Guide
Search for movies by actor, title, country of origin, genre, decade of production, "mood", and more.
- America at Work, America at Leisure
This collection from the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program, includes 150 motion pictures documenting work, school, and leisure activities in the U.S. from 1894 to 1915.
- Cinemedia
Features over 5,000 sites devoted to actors as well as links to over 700 magazines and journals, 800 film and video festivals, and 400 TV networks and channels. Find information on TV actors and shows, schools, products, media and regulations, as well as radio, cinema, and new media.
- The Great Movies
Roger Ebert, well known Chicago Sun Times and television film reviewer, reviews new movies and has now made available a growing collection of reviews of classic and foreign movies.
Great Directors - A Critical Database - Senses of Cinema
A cricitical database of "great directors" from the online journal, Senses of Cinema.
- The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
The Internet Movie Database is searchable by name, title, genre, and movie quotes. Includes several supplemental databases including movie reviews, quotations, industry statistics, historic movie events, highly rated movies, movie glossary, award nominees and winners, and more. Allows for extended searching.
- Motion Picture and Television Reading Room (Library of Congress)
LCs collection spans the entire history of the cinema. Includes links to several collections of early motion pictures in the American Memory projects.
- Movie Database
From The Motion Picture Guide, Cinebooks' 23-volume reference landmark, and Ephraim Katz's comprehensive Film Encyclopedia, this searchable database includes the cast, credits and reviews for more than 35,000 movies released in the U.S., plus filmographies and biographical information on thousands of actors, directors and other filmmakers.
- The Movie Review Query Engine
Entries in the database are reviews that have been posted in the past to rec.arts.movies.reviews or appear on one of the WWW servers of a variety of commercial or college newspapers and periodicals. Updated regularly, currently 90,000+ reviews of 14,900+ movie titles. Allows for complex searching. Many reviews date back to the 1980s.
- THE MOVING IMAGE GENRE-FORM GUIDE
"Since searches of online databases will be increasingly conducted over the internet, instead of with the assistance of reference librarians, the Moving Image Genre-Form Guide aims to promote the likelihood of outside researchers finding the desired bibliographic records through use of the basic terms in the field."
- Reel.com
Primarily intended for purchase of movies. Includes very abbreviated reviews. Features like Movie Matches help find other movies that are similar in style, tone, feel, and theme to the one selected.
