Research

The Moving Image Source Research Guide is a gateway to the best online resources related to film, television, and digital media.

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Databases

  • Ad Flip  
    A large database of classic print ads dating back to 1940, including movie ads. About 10 percent of the archive is publicly available; the rest of the content can only be accessed through a paid subscription.
  • American Masters Database  
    Read well-researched biographies of important film and television personalities.
  • American Widescreen Museum  
    The American Widescreen Museum is a collection of online exhibitions on a variety of film exhibition and technology topics, including wide screen systems, color history, sound development, aspect ratios, preservation, and restoration. The websites feature a variety of resources such as technical publications, filmographies, poster galleries, journal publications, and other reference tools.
  • Arcade History  
    A searchable database of classic arcade games, including general information on the games themselves as well as more technical information about the consoles.
  • BECTU Oral History Project   Paid Subscription Required
    The Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU) represents personnel working within the British film industry and related fields. Since 1986, the BECTU History Project has compiled over 500 recorded interviews with veterans of the industry discussing their careers. Subjects range from well-known directors and producers to less famous crew and personnel.
  • Big Cartoon Database  
    This database allows users to search for information on animated media by character, title, studio, and crew.
  • Bioscope  
    Bioscope features well-researched and indexed posts on a range of early and silent cinema topics as well as a calendar of current and upcoming festivals and conferences on silent cinema. The Bioscope Library compiles links to full-text downloads of books and journals, most published before 1920.
  • Blaxploitation Database  
    This database, created by fans, lists hundreds of blaxploitation films and soundtracks. This exhaustive list includes short synopses and information about DVD availability.
  • British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)  
    BAFTA is the leading independent charity supporting, developing, and promoting the art forms of the moving image in the UK, from Film and Television to Video Games and Interactive Media. The website offers articles, photos, videos, podcasts, a guide to directing, a calendar of events, as well as a searchable database of BAFTA award winners.
  • British Artists' Moving Image Database  
    A research database on British artists' film and video, covering experimental and avant-garde film, video art, artists' television, gallery-based installations, and other works that use moving image and audiovisual multimedia technologies. The database provides information for several thousand works, including dates, formats, and some synopses. It also links to the holdings of public and academic collections, archives, distributors, and dealers, including information about locations and conditions of access.
  • British Universities Newsreel Database  
    Get information about the history of moving image journalism in the UK. Search a database of stories and interviews with British news reporters, dating back to 1910.
  • Canadian Film Encyclopedia  
    An online reference project from the Film Reference Library, a leading educator and research and information resource for Canadian film. Currently, the Canadian Film Encyclopedia includes over 750 film title, biographical, and subject entries, covering some of Canada's foremost historical and modern films and filmmakers. The CFE also includes original writing from Canadian film critics, professionals, academics, and theorists as well as a bibliography section featuring key print and electronic resources on Canadian film.
  • Chinese Movie Database  
    A multilingual search engine covering the entirety of Chinese film history. The website also features an assortment of film posters, the earliest of which date back to the 1970s.
  • Cinema Treasures  
    Devoted to the cause of movie theater preservation, this site covers nearly 16,000 theaters and has over 1,500 photos from roughly 60 countries.
  • CinemaTour  
    35,351 cinemas and 42,209 photos in the database.
  • Cinemetrics  
    Cinemetrics is a collaborative tool for recording statistical data on average shot lengths to analyze movies, and for publishing the gathered data on the website. Also featured are articles about movie measurement and studies using cinemetrics data.
  • Digital Games Research Association (DIGRA) Digital Library  
    Full-text archive of presentations given at the leading academic conferences and seminars related to digital games.
  • Digital Snow  
    The 2002 DVD-Rom Digital Snow showcases Michael Snow's body of work and has garnered several prizes. The Daniel Langlois Foundation, with permission from Michael Snow and Anarchive, adapted the DVD-Rom for this site. It features texts, drawings, and notes by the artist; texts on the artist; 2-D and 3-D animations and simulations; audio recordings: sound works and improvised music by Michael Snow and the group CCMC; film excerpts; photo reproductions of his work; bibliographies and directories; and a searchable database.
  • Documentary Films .NET  
    A searchable database of documentary films that also provides an extensive list of online resources for documentary filmmaking and distribution.
  • Documentary is never neutral  
    This online resource for political documentary makers features essays, interviews, articles, a list of organizations and people involved in community and grassroots media, and lists of online and "real world" resources.