LibGuides: Film: Information and Databases

Finding films in the Reed catalog

Finding DVDs and videotapes

Searching for movies in the Reed library catalog is as simple as putting in the title and limiting search results to "Resource Type" > "DVD", "Videocassettes" or "Streaming video & film" depending on the media format (left-hand facets). If you need further reduction of the search results, try the title and the director or lead actor’s last name. You can also view movies by title, genre, or language in the IMC Film Guide. For more information about the Instructional Media Center or to search the catalog, click below.

Research databases - Reed library and beyond

Screen Studies This link opens in a new window
Screen Studies is a database designed to support film studies. It offers a broad range of fully indexed content including books, screenplays, articles and learning resources from Bloomsbury, Faber & Faber, the British Film Institute, Focal Press and Auteur
Film and Television Literature Index with Full Text (1914 - Present) This link opens in a new window
Index and full-text of over 400 film and television publications, including scholarly journals - and over 36,300 images from the MPTV Image Archive. For your first foray into film & television research, start here.
Coverage Dates: 1914 - Present
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive interdisciplinary database with scanned images of scholarly journals and periodicals. Many new ebooks.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Database containing US and UK magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater, from the era of vaudeville through 2000.
International Index to the Performing Arts This link opens in a new window
Citations and selected full text for journal articles and other periodicals relating to dance, theatre, music, film, and performance art.
Coverage Dates: 1864 - Present
Communication Source This link opens in a new window
Resources for mass media, communications theory, linguistics, organizational communication, phonetics and speech pathology. It includes many unique full-text titles not available in other EBSCO academic databases.
Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window
Includes citations to articles in more than 4,600 scholarly journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
Scholarly periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Database spans more than two centuries of content, 37 key subject areas, and multiple languages.
Project MUSE (1958 - Present) This link opens in a new window
Full text access to over 400 scholarly journals in the humanities, performing arts, and social sciences. All journals are scanned, including images. Coverage Dates: 1958 - Present

BFI
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, distribution, and education.
Box Office Mojo
Online boxoffice reporting service. Reliable information source for statistics relating to box office returns. News and information resource for worldwide cinema.
Movie Review Query Engine
Website for online reviews including most major periodicals.
Black Film Archive
Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films. In its current iteration, it showcases Black films made from 1915 to 1979 currently streaming. Most clips are previews with links to paid streaming services
Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collections
Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences database containing more than 3000 items, including correspondence, photographs, early release fliers, full issues of rare periodicals, sheet music, Oscar winners, and movie star ephemera.
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) serves as the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries in the United States and around the world. MPAA's members are the six major U.S. motion picture studios: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Paramount Pictures Corporation; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal City Studios LLC; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
The Media History Digital Library
Open access database for magazines and journals of film, broadcast, and recorded sound. Contents are scanned images of the original publications with text recognition. Includes orphaned works of trade papers and fan magazines.
Iskusstvo Kino Digital Archive
Iskusstvo kino, established in 1931, is the leading journal of Russian, and formerly Soviet, cinema. Iskusstvo kino includes critical reviews of both domestic and foreign film, as well as scholarly articles on cinematic theory and history as well as the Russian culture and arts scene. It was first published under title Proletarskoe kino (1931-1932), then Sovetskoe kino (1933-1935), and finally under the present name (since 1936). Russian language only (translates well using Chrome browser).
Prelinger Archives
Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 60,000 "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. In 2002, the film collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.
more...less...
Its primary collection emphasis has turned toward home movies and amateur films, with approximately 12,000 items held as of Spring 2015. Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven't been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions.
Spread the Word
Documentaries and news with an international focus (and usually an agenda). "Sprword.com plans to counter corporate media by providing links to important videos, articles, and websites that reveal what corporate mainstream media refuses to recognize as need-to-know information". Documentaries can be faceted by region or topic.
UbuWeb
UbuWeb is an independent resource dedicated to the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts.
Colonial Film Database
This website holds detailed information on over 6000 films showing images of life in the British colonies. Over 150 films are available for viewing online. You can search or browse for films by country, date, topic, or keyword. "Over 350 of the most important films in the catalogue are presented with extensive critical notes written by our academic research team."
Lantern
Lantern is the search platform for the collections of the Media History Digital Library. The Media History Digital Library (MHDL) digitizes collections of classic media periodicals that belong in the public domain for full public access.

Film screenplays

IMSDb
The internet movie script database.
SimplyScripts
Movies, TV, plays and radio