Research Guides: Film & Cinema Research Guide: Movies

Find Movies

DVDs and Videos at the Flaxman Library

Circulating DVDs and videos from the Flaxman Library can be checked out for 3 days. Fines for movies are $5 per item, per day. Non-Circulating DVDs have to be watched in the library. Ask at the front desk about our viewing rooms.

Off campus? log in using your ARTIC username and password, just like you’re logging in to your SAIC email.

Alexander Street Streaming This link opens in a new window
The Alexander Street Streaming platform allows users to search multiple databases at once to find streaming videos--feature films, documentaries, and short films--across a wide variety of subjects and disciplines.
Asian Film Online This link opens in a new window
More than 1,000 narrative feature films, documentaries, and shorts. Works selected by Asian film experts explore themes of modernity, globalization, national identity, female agency, inequalities in opportunity amid social and political unrest, and cultural and sexual identity—are central to any meaningful discussion of Asian culture.
Black Studies in Video (North America) This link opens in a new window
Includes documentaries on leading artists, writers, musicians, playwrights, and performers. Includes the Hatch-Billops Collection, archive of primary and secondary materials focused on black American art, drama, and literature. Plus the SNCC archives, the NAACP archives, and archives from select Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Dance in Video This link opens in a new window
Dance productions and documentaries by the most influential performers and companies of the 20th century. Selections cover ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, experimental, and improvisational dance, as well as forerunners of the forms and the pioneers of modern concert dance.
Docuseek2 Streaming This link opens in a new window
Streaming video collection of documentary films from Kartemquin Films, Collective Eye, Fanlight.com, ScorpionTV, Bullfrog Films, Icarus Films and other distributors.
EAI: Electronic Arts Intermix Educational Streaming This link opens in a new window
Covers mid-1960s to the present, and is one of the most comprehensive video art collections. The works include pioneering figures, e.g. Nam June Paik, Bruce Nauman, Martha Rosler, Joan Jonas, to new digital works by emerging artists, e.g. Seth Price, Paper Rad, Cory Arcangel and Takeshi Murata.
Filmakers Library Online This link opens in a new window
Award-winning documentaries with relevance across the curriculum—race and gender studies, human rights, global studies, multiculturalism, international relations, criminal justice, the environment, bioethics, health, political science and current events, psychology, arts, literature, and more.
Kanopy Streaming This link opens in a new window
Tip: Videos play best only in Firefox, Safari, IE, for embedding videos (may not load in Chrome). Curated collection from independent and international producers including selections from Criterion, Michael Blackwood and others.
New World Cinema: Independent Features & Shorts This link opens in a new window
Streaming video collection of approximately 200 full-length feature films from leading independent distributors such as Kino Lorber, First Run Features, Film Movement, MK2, and the Global Films Initiative, along with some fifty award-winning shorts.
OnArchitecture This link opens in a new window
Over 600 original videos examining major worldwide trends and personalities in architecture today. Includes interviews, documentation of buildings and installations, along with supporting materials about the main authors and figures of contemporary architecture.
OntheBoards.tv This link opens in a new window
HD-quality contemporary performance films. Filmed at On the Boards, as well as peer theaters across the country, the performances present a snapshot of the best new works by current leaders in dance, theater and music.
Opera in Video This link opens in a new window
Five hundred hours of important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. Selections represent the world’s best performers, conductors, and opera houses and are based on a work’s importance to the operatic canon.
Panopto Video Library (SAIC Videos) This link opens in a new window
This SAIC-hosted video platform features major contemporary artists, many of whom have visited or are part of the SAIC community. It includes works from: Visiting Artists Program, Video Data Bank, Conversations at the Edge, Flaxman Library, Photography Parlor Room, Painting and Drawing, Fiber and Material Studies, the Fashion Resource Center, and more.
Library of Congress National Film Registry This link opens in a new window
Broad range of historical and cultural documents that contribute to education and lifelong learning that are earmarked for preservation by the Library of Congress. Majority are freely available as both 5mb MP4 and ProRes 422 MOV downloads.
Silent Film Online This link opens in a new window
250+ films in streaming video that represent the foundation of modern cinematic technique and film theory, covering silent feature films, serials, and shorts from the 1890s to the 1930s.
Swank Digital Campus This link opens in a new window
Curated collection of streaming videos including a number of classic and contemporary popular films largely from Hollywood studios and producers.
Theatre in Video: Volume 1 This link opens in a new window
More than 250 performances of the world's leading plays, together with more than 100 film documentaries, online in streaming video - representing hundreds of leading playwrights, actors and directors.

All Available Streaming Videos Databases (from the Databases A-Z list)

Films and videos from library collections are primarily for educational use (classroom screenings and personal research) and as a general rule libraries do not have performance screening rights for the movies they own. Links below are useful in understanding copyright issues and film screenings.

Performance Rights for Copyrighted Videorecordings
University of Buffalo's Performance Rights for Copyrighted Videos
Public v. Private
Mt. Holyoke University's Resources on whether a screening is public or private to determine permission to screen.

Off campus? log in using your ARTIC username and password, just like you’re logging in to your SAIC email.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Indexes scholarly and trade articles, many full text, in all academic subjects including: arts & literature, humanities, social sciences, education, computer sciences, language and linguistics, medical sciences, ethnic studies and more. 1975 to the present.
Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Covers all aspects of television and film, including theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
Film Literature Index (1976-2001) This link opens in a new window
Citations only to film, television and video articles and reviews.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full text archive of all JSTOR content including scholarly humanities, arts, and social sciences journals. Note: does NOT include the most current 3-5 years.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Historical journal archive in the humanities, arts, and social sciences.

Free streaming web sites

British Pathé Newsfilm Collection
Over 85,000 films from 1895 - 1970; complete newsreel items with voice-overs and soundtracks, plus outtakes and unissued items.
Chicago Film Archives
Includes some streaming video.
Center for Home Movies
e-flux video & film
conversations, lectures, and symposia at e-flux, featuring some of the most interesting artists and thinkers of our times.
Internet Archive Free Feature Films
Over 5000 films from television, independent, international and Hollywood producers.
Media Burn Independent Video Archive
The Moving Image Catalog
Online curatorial platform dedicated to the promotion of artists’ moving image culture. We select moving image works that are officially and freely available to watch online.
National Screening Room (Library of Congress)
The majority of movies are freely available as both 5 mb MP4 and ProRes 422 MOV downloads.

Library of Congress National Film Registry This link opens in a new window
Broad range of historical and cultural documents that contribute to education and lifelong learning that are earmarked for preservation by the Library of Congress. Majority are freely available as both 5mb MP4 and ProRes 422 MOV downloads.

South Side Home Movie Project
UbuWeb: Film & Video
Many avant-garde films & videos presented for educational use.

Film & Cinema archives, distributors, etc.