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This page contains information on Academic Film research resources. Click on the following headings to be taken directly to that section:

Academic Film Research Resources, Current (Print)

Academic Film Research Resources, Out of Print (Print)

Academic film Research Resources (CD)

Academic film Research Resources (Online)

Copyright Information Resources

 

Academic Film Research Resources, Current (Print)

bulletAlexander, Geoff. Academic Films for the Classroom: A History (2010, McFarland) Written by the director of the Academic Film Archive of North America, this book provides a history of the educational film movement in North America, with special chapters dedicated to film companies (e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica Films) and individual filmmakers (e.g. John Barnes) that contributed to the genre.
bulletAlexander, Geoff. Films You Saw in School: A Critical Review of 1,153 Classroom Educational Films (1958-1985) in 74 Subject Categories (2014, McFarland). The companion volume to Academic Films for the Classroom: A History, this book reviews more than one thousand academic classroom films, classified into 12 major classifications and a number of other sub-genres. It provides an essential insight into little-known behind-the-scenes stories that drove the making of these films, many of which are as relevant today as when they were made. More than 200 of the films discussed are available for public viewing on the internet.  This book will have special appeal to educators, home-schoolers, film researchers and scholars, and cultural historians.
bulletOrgeron, Devin & Marsha, and Streible, Dan (Editors). Learning with the Lights Off: Educational Film in the United States (2012, Oxford University Press). This book contains 19 essays covering a breadth of the educational film movement, including industrial, medical, nature, and race & religion films, as well as writings on archiving and collecting.
bulletSmith, Ken. Mental Hygiene: Better Living Through Classroom Films 1945-1970 (1999, Blast Books). This book focuses on the Guidance film sub-genre, with emphasis on sex, drugs, dating, and driver safety films. Filmmakers such as Sid Davis, and companies such as Centron and Coronet are profiled.

Academic Film Research Resources, Out of Print (Print)

bulletBowker's Educational Film Locator was an easy-to use guide, made in cooperation with a large consortium of university film centers.  Like Landers (below), it contains bibliographical information, but without credits for individual directors and producers.  The first edition, in one book, was published in 1978.  Far more valuable was the two-volume, 4th edition of 1990-1991, since most academic film companies had stopped producing films in 16mm by 1987 or so.
bulletFootage 89, published by Rick Prelinger in 1989, contains abstracts and contact information on many of the companies producing film and video of the era
bulletLanders Film Reviews were an informational guide to most of the films sold to schools during the years of 1960 through 1989, published five times a year by this now-defunct Escondido, CA firm.   Each film review included a synopsis and credits.  While full of great data, you have to search each issue separately, and master index of all films in all years would be useful.  If it exists, we haven't found it yet.
bulletH.W. Wilson Company's Educational Film Catalog (later Educational Film Guide), published its first edition in 1936, before doing it annually beginning in 1943

Academic film Research Resources (CD)

bulletAV-Online was a CD resource containing bibliographic records of over 660,000 educational moving image items, compiled by NICEM (National Information Center for Educational Media), dating from 1900 through 2007.  The CD is no longer available (see Online resources below).

Academic film Research Resources (Online)

bulletView many of our films at the Academic Film Archive of North America collection on the Internet Archive, all available to view free of charge, .
bulletSkip Elsheimer's AV Geeks site is a campy, fun site that showcases another aspect of the educational film world
bulletTom Davenport's terrific Folkstreams site is a "National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures," streamed with essays about the traditions and filmmaking.  Worth a visit.
bulletCool Conservation's Motion Picture Film Preservation web page provides a number of links to pages relating to a myriad of storage, preservation, and identififcation links.  
bulletScott Stark's Flicker site has done a fine job documenting alternative cinemas all over the world.   If you're traveling, consult his site first to find interesting cinema (click on "Venues") .
bulletPratt Institute's Art on Screen database covers the world of art on film (we found 51 wonderfully annotated references to films on Picasso alone.) 
bulletWorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories[1] which participate in the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) global cooperative. It is built and maintained collectively by the participating libraries.
bulletThe National Film Board of Canada has two options for researching their films. To search for a film and metadata, visit: https://collection.nfb.ca/home  To view many of its films online, visit https://www.nfb.ca/explore-all-films
bullet Affordable Colleges Online's resource guide for college students explains how to get beyond superficial or unreliable searches. While standard search engines are convenient for accessing the surface web, it doesn't get to "hidden" sourcing from academic journals, digitized archives, and databases.  The guide gives instructions on how to use the "invisible web" for college-level research, includes advice on how to assess a resource's accuracy, and links to many additional deep research resources for students, regardless of academic discipline.
bulletA-V Online, discussed in CD resources above, can now only be ordered as an online subscription. As of November 2015, pricing for one simultaneous user access is: $2,254, unlimited usage is $6,311.

Copyright and Fair Use Information Resources

bulletCopyright is a Byzantine labyrinth of laws, made easier, in terms of US film copyright issues, by Cornell University's Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States, based on research and documentation by Peter Hirtle, Laura Gasawy, and others.  It is printable as a PDF document.
bulletFor European film copyright laws, visit http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32006L0116:EN:NOT   , which codifies Directive 2006/116/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights.  Articles 2 and 3 have specific references to cinema copyright issues.
bulletSince many film researchers make liberal use of quotations in their writings, we recommend two resources that discuss fair use law. See the EduBirdie Copyright Law page for some basic ideas, and the University of Texas Copyright Crash Course for a more in-depth discussion.
bulletNational Paralegal College is an exceptional resource for seemingly everything related to Patents, Trademarks & Copyrights.
bulletUPrinting's Guide to Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents in Print and Beyond hosts a number of outstanding resources ranging from copyright law to Fair Use


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