Library

Film

Below are suggested resources to use when researching a Film topic. For research strategies and techniques, visit the resources linked from the menu at the left.

Getting Started | Finding Articles | Getting Fulltext | Reviews

Specific Research Topics: Censorship and Propaganda | Gender and Sexuality | Industry | Race | War and Tragedy

Getting Started

Before jumping in and looking for research, it is a good idea to have a refined topic and to know a little about it. Start with broad resources like encyclopedias, bibliographies, and handbooks to start to get a sense of what is available on your topic in the universe of information.

The Animated Film Encyclopedia
Beatley Reference NC1765 .W42 2000
A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features and Sequences 1900-1979
Alphabetical reference work of theatrical cartoons released from 1900-1979, including details on artists, production company, dates, and summary of cartoon plot. Does not cover television or computer-animated cartoons.

Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory
Beatley Reference PN1993.45 .C75 2000
Accessible introduction to theoretical terminology and concepts from the 1960s to the present, with a focus on British and American cinema.

Encyclopedia of Early Cinema
Beatley Reference PN1993.45 .E53 2005
Illustrated reference to cinema from the early 1890s to the mid-1910s, with alphabetically-arranged entries on techniques, technological developments, actors, filmmakers, narration, and audiences written by subject specialists.

The Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com
A massive online directory of movies and people in the movies, current movie/industry news, archived reviews, a glossary to film terminology, box office statistics, links to film festivals, schools, studios, and more.

Finding Articles

Search the following indexes to find articles on the topic of Film. See individual Resources by Subject guides for more specific indexes covering topics within the broader field of Film.

Academic Search Complete
Citations and full text articles for thousands of multi-disciplinary scholarly journals. Great for finding film reviews and critical articles from journals like Film Quarterly, Journal of Popular Film & Television, and Film Comment. Use the Advanced Search for a more precise search!

Business Source Premier
Search here for articles on the film industry that have appeared in business, management, economics, advertising, marketing, and general news periodicals from 1965 to the present. Use the Advanced Search for a more precise search!

Communication & Mass Media Complete
This database is the combination of CommSearch and Mass Media Articles Index. It provides the full text of over 200 communication related journals, as well as articles from reviews, encyclopedias, and handbooks. Use the Advanced Search for a more precise search!

Expanded Academic ASAP
Articles on everything from women filmmakers to film restoration to make-up in the movies to individual production companies and festivals worldwide. Culled from scholarly and popular film and general periodicals. Use the Advanced Search for a more precise search!

Film Literature Index
Index Shelf
A series of annual indexes from 1973 to the present of critical reviews and articles on film, television, and video from more than 300 international film and general periodicals.

Humanities Full Text
Index to (1984-) and full-text (1995-) reviews and critical articles from film periodicals such as American Film, Film Comment, Film Criticism, Film Quarterly, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Literature/Film Quarterly, Sight & Sound, and general humanities periodicals. Use the Advanced Search for a more precise search!

Project Muse
Full text of many scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, including Film History, Camera Obscura, and Wide Angle. Use the Advanced Search for a more precise search!

Getting Fulltext

Because not all indexes are fulltext--or 100% fulltext--you may have to elsewhere to find an article for which you have a citation. Consult the resources below to find out how to get access to the articles you need.

Go to the Online Catalog, and select Title/Journal Title.
Enter the journal title and click Submit Search. If Simmons holds the journal, you will see it listed as a link. If Simmons does not hold the journal, try finding it at a nearby library or request it via Interlibrary Loan: http://my.simmons.edu/library/ill/
Click the journal title link, and you will see the holdings record for the journal. The record will tell you which issue dates are available in print, microfilm, and/or online. If the article is available in print or microfilm, note the call number for the journal. If the article is available online, click the link to go to the journal in the database that contains your article. Browse the journal for the date, volume, and issue you need to find the article, or search the database by journal or source title, article title and/or author for the article you need.

Reviews

Academic Search Complete & Expanded Academic ASAP
Both of these sources include citations and some full-text articles of recent film reviews taken mostly from general interest periodicals.

Film Review Annual
Reference (Beatley) PN1995 .F463
Collected film reviews from 1982 to 1999 from film and general publications, gathered in annual volumes and arranged alphabetically. The appendix lists the recipients of the Annual Academy Awards.

Lexis-Nexis
A great source for finding newspaper reviews. Choose the “Arts and Sports News” category in the Guided News Search, then select “Book, movie, music, & play reviews.” Enter the name of the film as your search term.

Media Review Digest
Reference (Beatley) Index Shelf 1970-1981, 1983-1986, 1989, 1991-
Index and digest of reviews of educational and entertainment media (films, videocassettes, DVDs, CD-ROMs, etc.) that appeared in education, film, music, and library periodicals between 1970 and 2004.

The New York Times Film Reviews
Reference (Beatley) PN1995 .N4
An illustrated collection of film reviews originally published in the New York Times between 1913 and 1982, arranged chronologically. Best and award-winning films are noted. All reviews from 1960 to the present are also available for free online, with some selected earlier reviews, at http://movies.nytimes.com/ref/movies/reviews/

Roger Ebert
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com
Roger Ebert’s movie reviews from the Chicago Sun-Times are archived online from 1967 to the present.

Finding information on Specific Research Topics

For more information on more specific topics within the discipline, contact a librarian.

Censorship and Propaganda

Forbidden Films: Censorship Histories of 125 Motion Pictures
Beatley Reference PN1995.62 .S67 2001
Selective alphabetical reference to films in the United States that have been banned, censored, or challenged. Each entry includes a summary of the film as well as a brief overview of its censorship history.

The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and its Afterlife
Renovation Storage PN1995.9.N36 R46 1996
Approachable study of key films from the Nazi era, such as Youth Quex, Lucky Kids, La Habanera, Jew Suss, and Munchhausen, with a chronology of key events, extensive bibliographies and filmographies.

Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies
Beatley PN1995.9.A72 R63 2004
Journalist David Brooks explores how the Pentagon has been influencing Hollywood’s representation of combat over the last fifty years and calls upon Congress to stop this practice.

Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: a Historical Encyclopedia, 1500 to the Present
Beatley Reference HM1231 .C85 2003
This alphabetically arranged encyclopedia includes coverage of film censorship and propaganda around the world.

Gender and Sexuality

The Celluloid Closet [Videorecording]
Media - Video Cassette 1771
This documentary shows the changing face of cinema homosexuality through footage from over 120 films and anecdotes by actors, writers and commentators on the history of gay men and lesbians on the silver screen.

Contemporary Women’s Issues
Go here for critical articles on the representation of women, gender, and sexuality in international film. Citations and full-text articles from 1992 to the present. Use the Advanced Search for a more precise search!

Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema, 1896 to the Present
Beatley Reference PN1998.2 .A24 1991
Selective illustrated biographical dictionary of major and unrecognized women directors, producers, editors, animators, stunt women, and more.

Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader
Beatley PN1995.9.W6 W63 1993
Anthology of essays that originally appeared in the magazine Sight and Sound exploring film representations of femininity, masculinity, and homosexuality.

Industry

Biography Resource Center
Search for filmmakers, directors, actors, and industry executives in this biographical database that culls biographical information from periodicals and reference sources, including Marquis Who’s Who. Use the Advanced Search for a more precise search!

Hollywood Reporter
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com
Trade daily reporting news stories of the international entertainment industry. Their web site posts 24/7 news and reviews, with some content available by subscription only. Back issues to 1994 available through LexisNexis.

The International Film Industry: A Historical Dictionary
Beatley Reference PN1993.45 .S57 1989
Alphabetical dictionary of international film production companies, organizations, festivals, studios, distributors, publications, genres, and series, and short essays on film production in many countries.

The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry
Beatley Reference PN1993.5.U6 S539 1998
An alphabetically arranged dictionary covering movie studios, production and distribution companies, processes, places, and publications of the American film industry.

The Numbers: Box Office Data, Movie Stars, Idle Speculation
http://www.the-numbers.com
This free web site tracks business information about movies, current and past, such as budgets, highest grossing movies, popularity, top stars at the box office, theater counts, and more.

Variety
http://www.variety.com/
Like the Hollywood Reporter, Variety is a trade publication delivering same-day global entertainment news, with a particular focus on the New York market. Subscribers gain access to interactive online charts and data. Back issues to 1992 available through LexisNexis.

Race

Blacks in American Films and Television: An Encyclopedia
Beatley Reference PN1995.9.N4 B58 1988
This illustrated encyclopedia contains entries on mainstream television series and movies, feature films, plus selective biographical profiles of actors and directors.

Mediating Two Worlds: Cinematic Encounters in the Americas
Beatley PN1993.5.L3 M42 1993
Essays by experts in Latin American and cinema studies on issues such as gender, nationalism, and colonialism with a focus on film production coming out of Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, as well as Hollywood and Europe.

Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality, and Transnational Media
Beatley PN1995.9.M56 M855 2003
Interdisciplinary anthology investigates race and colonialism in Latin American, French, Algerian, Brazilian, Filipino and Indian media, and offers close readings of films such as Mississippi Masala and Lone Star.

War and Tragedy

Film and Television After 9/11
Beatley PN1993.5.U6 F477 2004
A collection of essays by professors of film and media studies, literature, and sociology about how we view images – both documentary and fiction – in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust
Beatley PN1995.9.H53 I57 1983
This illustrated classic examines the search for a cinematic language of the Holocaust, narrative strategies of Holocaust films, responses to Nazi atrocities, and survivor films without shying away from issues of morality. (A more recent edition of this title with a foreword by Elie Wiesel is available full-text through ebrary. Search in the online catalog for title=“Indelible Shadows” and click on the electronic resource version).

Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television
Beatley DS557.73 .A5 1991
Previously unpublished essays written by historians about direct and indirect representations of the Vietnam War in documentary and fiction films, made-for-television movies and serial dramas.

World War II, Film, and History
Beatley D743.23 .W67 1996
These nine essays exploring the “cinematic war” originated from a 1993 Rutgers University conference, “War, Film, and History.” Historians examine representations of war in American, German, Japanese, and Soviet films.

MySimmons

Simmons College Intranet for Current Students, Faculty and Staff

Navigation: