Research

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

ALL RESOURCES

Browse by Type of Resource

Filter Resource List

 Peer Reviewed

Archives - Americas

  • 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.
  • Agrasanchez Film Archive  
    The Agrasanchez Film Archive is a privately owned film archive specializing in Mexican cinema following its conversion to sound. Although its holdings have not been completely cataloged and are at present not available to the public, the website features information on the archive's tentative future as well as several articles pertaining to the history of Mexican cinema.
  • Archive Grid   Paid Subscription Required
    Search for primary sources in American archives. The site will tell you the title of a work or file and which archive it is in, but you will have to contact each specific archive to be able to access those works.
  • Archives USA   Paid Subscription Required
    Search for primary sources in more than 5,500 repositories and more than 161,000 collections across the United States.
  • Center for Visual Music  
    The Center for Visual Music is a nonprofit film archive dedicated to visual music, experimental animation, and avant-garde media. Its website offers an online library, an official research page for filmmaker/painter Oskar Fischinger, information about traveling curated film programs and membership, an online store, and galleries.
  • Chicago Film Archives  
    A searchable list of what is available at the physical archive in Chicago.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Directory of Corporate Archives in the U.S.  
    An index of corporate archives that lists each archive's location, archivist, and contact information. A good source for business information in areas ranging from technology to industry history.
  • Early Television Foundation  
    Online home of the Early Television Foundation and Museum, based in Hillard, Ohio.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Kinsey Institute: Film and Video Collection  
    The Kinsey Institute's film and video collection represents one of the largest collections of visual material pertaining to the study of human sexuality. The film archive "consists of approximately 8,000 film titles ranging in date from 1915 through the 1970s. The collections contain a variety of formats including super 8, 8mm, 16mm and 35mm."
  • Motion Picture Case Files in New York State Archives  
    New York State collected case files on motion pictures between 1927 and 1965. The files contain a wealth of information, including, in many cases, film scripts.
  • National Archives - Motion Picture Films and Sound and Video Recordings  
    The website for the National Archives Motion Picture Films and Sound and Recordings Division features extensive finding aids to the physical collections in Washington D.C., as well as for the presidential libraries.
  • National Film Board of Canada  
    The National Film Board of Canada’s website has streaming video of more than 700 films, trailers, and clips for free viewing. The collection is easy to browse and includes animation, documentaries, narrative films, and experimental films, in French and English. The Playlists section consists of annotated viewing lists from invited film experts.
  • National Film Preservation Foundation  
    Since created by Congress in 1996, the National Film Preservation Foundation has given preservation grants to 176 institutions across 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and has helped save more than 1,322 films and footage collections. The foundation also publish DVDs and guides and support other national preservation and access projects.
  • National Public Broadcasting Libraries at the University of Maryland  
    Browse through finding aids for the many specialized collections in the physical archive.
  • Northeast Historic Film Archive  
    A searchable list of what's available at the physical archive in Bucksport, Maine.
  • PFA Cinefiles  
    The Pacific Film Archive conducts primary source research for the films it shows and has posted the results of that research. The database includes reviews, press kits, festival and showcase program notes, newspaper articles, and more, covering more than 30,000 films. Materials that are not copyright-protected are available (usually as .GIF or .JPG files) for download.