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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Online Archives, Collections, and Exhibitions

  • 3-D Film Archive  
    Founded in 1990 by Bob Furmanek, the 3-D Film Archive is dedicated to saving and preserving the heritage of stereoscopic film. The organization has located and restored original dual-strip 35mm Polaroid prints of more than thirty features and two dozen shorts from 1922-1955.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Archive of American Television  
    This website, created by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation's Archive of American Television, is home to more than 500 interviews with TV pioneers.
  • ArtPort  
    The Whitney Museum of American Art's portal to Internet art features a host of commissioned online projects, including the group exhibition CODeDOC, which examined software code as art. Active through 2006.
  • BBC Audio Interviews  
    Audio clips of interviews–many (but not all) with influential creators of film, television, or digital media. Dates and original broadcast stations listed.
  • 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.
  • Big Dream, Small Screen   Paid Subscription Required
    The companion website to PBS's special on the history of television in America (part of their ongoing series The American Experience).
  • Blues, Black Vaudeville, and the Silver Screen  
    An online exhibit, rich in primary sources, exploring the amusements available to the African American population of Macon, Georgia, from 1912 to the 1930s.
  • 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.
  • Chuck Jones  
    Official site of the Chuck Jones Studio Galleries. Most of the information is about cells and sketches available for purchase.
  • Cine Club - Cine Mexico  
    This website features a detailed timeline of Mexican cinema history and a handful of bibliographic recommendations for each entry. In Spanish.
  • Cinema Context  
    A resource on film distribution and exhibition in the Netherlands. Cinema Context has complete-as-possible records of every screening in a major Netherlands city since 1896.
  • Cineteca Nacional - Mexico  
    The official site of the national film archive of Mexico offers information about current and past exhibitions, as well as links to festivals, film websites, and other institutions in Mexico. In Spanish.
  • 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.
  • Early Visual Media: A Pictorial Media Archeology  
    This excellent resource consists of many different online exhibitions concerned with all kinds of visual media, beginning with pre-cinematic visual technology and amusements, through early television. In addition to the text, each exhibit features many unique illustrations and photographs.
  • Edison Papers  
    View scanned images of Edison's original papers, including his personal notes, correspondence, and more. Includes information on the invention of the kinetoscope and other moving image technology, as well as Edison's business records. Search the archive by author, title, or folder.
  • Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting  
    An online exhibit documenting the relationship of Jews to film and television, including information on Jewish actors, directors, writers, businessmen, studio tycoons, and more. The exhibit covers specific works (Seinfeld, Your Show of Shows) and events (McCarthyism, the Holocaust) spanning from the invention of cinema to today.
  • 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.