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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Full-Length and Short Films Online

  • ABC News Video Source   Paid Subscription Required
    View over 100 years of video and newsreels from ABC's archives.
  • African Film Library  
    Over 600 digitally remastered African films and documentaries in English, French, Arabic, or Portuguese are available for a fee for 24-hour download.
  • American Jewish Committee Archives  
    This online collection features extensive audiovisual content from the American Jewish Committee's anti-prejudice campaigns in the post-World War II era. Here users will find, in addition to the films themselves, plentiful primary documentation produced by the AJC's television department about the production of these cartoons and live-action short subjects. Also includes the audio content of AJC-related radio programs from 1939 to 1955.
  • BFI Screenonline   Paid Subscription Required
    Screenonline, run by the British Film Institute, "is an online encyclopaedia of British film and television featuring hundreds of hours of film and television clips from the vast collections of the BFI National Archive, and several hours of recorded interviews with film and TV personalities". Although films may only be viewed by users at British universities, the rest of the website provides vast amounts of information pertaining to everything from comprehensive actors' filmographies to UK box-office statistics.
  • BIRTH TV archive   Paid Subscription Required
    A huge database featuring synopses and images of early television shows. Members can get film clips upon request.
  • British Pathe Limited  
    British Pathe Limited makes available 75 years of English newsreel footage. Users can join the site at no cost and download the films for private usage. The database's search function allows user to search by keyword, title, or theme. Very highly recommended.
  • British Universities Newsreel Database: Newsfilm Online  
    Watch newsreels from the collection. Clips can also be browsed by subject.
  • CNN Image Source  
    Search thousands of clips originally broadcast on CNN. Some clips can be streamed from their website, but others have to be ordered.
  • Critical Commons  
    Critical Commons is a non-profit advocacy coalition that supports the use of media for teaching, learning, and creativity by providing resources, information, and tools for scholars, students, educators and creators. The website offers film, television, and video clips, accompanied by commentary.
  • Euro Screenwriters: Interviews with European Film Directors  
    A website for aspiring screenwriters hosts this section of interviews with famous directors. The interviews are culled from various resources. The film clips section has video interviews and other material, including trailers edited by Jean-Luc Godard.
  • Europa Film Treasures  
    Europa Film Treasures is an online film catalogue created by a consortium of European film archives. It offers free access, via streaming, to more than 400 films presented with extensive historical notes in five languages, and categorized by time period, country of origin, and genre.
  • Experimental Cinema  
    This resource devoted to experimental and underground film offers news, articles, photos, online videos, a bibliography-filmography, a calendar, and an open space for discussion that allows members to add content to the site.
  • Fifty Years of Coca-Cola Television Advertisements  
    This online exhibit features a 50-year retrospective of Coca-Cola television advertising. Users can view the advertisements and read about the history of television advertising in general and the marketing of Coca-Cola in particular. The site also offers a bibliography and a guide to the collection at the Library of Congress.
  • Film Festival World  
    The website allows you to browse festivals by date (calls for entries and festival openings), location, genre, and offers resources such as short films online, a list of academies and awards, The Essential Film Blog Reader, a list of ezines and journals, and selected profiles of film distributors.
  • Films From the Home Front  
    An online exhibit of moving images from WWII Britain. Published by Moving History UK.
  • Footage.NET   Paid Subscription Required
    Footage.net is a network of stock and archival footage distributors. While most of its services are provided for members, users can still look to its frequently updated news section relating to all aspects of motion picture preservation and archiving. A lengthy article by Rich Prelinger on the fundamentals of stock footage libraries can be found on the site's 'About Us' page.
  • From Nanook to Oumigmag: Documentary Film in Canada  
    A curated exhibit (by the Cinematheque Quebecois) about Canadian documentary film. Features a timeline of notable events in Canadian documentary filmmaking, biographies of directors, profiles of companies that have produced documentaries, information on common recording equipment and processes, and a guide to the topics Canadian documentaries most often cover. Also features posters and some video clips. In English and French.
  • German Newsreel Archive   Paid Subscription Required
    View clips of German newsreels online. In German.
  • Harappa Film Archive  
    This site hosts a collection of archival film from South Asia, with a particular focus on the Indian and Pakistani independence struggles and the early history of Pakistan. View short excerpts on the site or contact the archive to purchase a video transfer of any of this rare material.
  • History in Motion  
    This site features clips from newsreels, early documentary films, and early narrative films such as The Great Train Robbery. Browse clips by topic, title, and date. History in Motion is the moving image section of Eyewitness to History, a site that compiles photos, first person accounts, and other historical primary sources for students. The film section focuses primarily on American history.