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Subject-specific eGuides

Film & Screen Studies

Searching for resources

There are two key library catalogues you may use when studying at Cambridge:

Girton Library catalogue (Heritage) – search Girton Library’s collection and see if items are available or already on loan. See our eGuide for further information.

iDiscover – to search across the University’s print and electronic collections (including books, eBooks, journals, newspapers, articles and much more, from other colleges, faculty and department libraries, and the University Library. Most, but not all, of Girton’s collection can be found here. See our Searching iDiscover eGuide for further information.

You will be able to borrow from Girton’s Main Library and the University Library. Your subject-specific library is the MMLL Faculty Library. However, there may be other libraries within Cambridge which stock useful resources. For a full list of the Cambridge libraries see the directory and check each library for access guidelines.

Subject-specific resources

Streaming services accessible for free to University members

  • Box of Broadcasts (BoB) Box of Broadcasts (BoB) is the largest shared online off-air television and radio recording service for education and research in the world. It makes available TV programmes and films from over 75 freeview channels from the last 20 years, including a large number of films (NB: these are recorded as shown on TV so will include ad breaks etc).
  • Digitalia Film Library A streaming library of world cinema, with a particular focus on Latin American films.
  • Artfilms Artfilms contains films by and about a large number of independent artists and filmmakers.
  • Klassiki online A streaming service for films from Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia - go to https://klassiki.online/register/university-of-cambridge/ to set up an account.
  • Centre of South Asian Studies film collection Most of the material was taken between 1911 and 1956 and gives a unique perspective of life in South Asia towards the end of the British Empire and in the first years of independence.
  • Royal Commonwealth Society Film Collection The Royal Commonwealth Society Film Collection contains twenty-one original amateur films made primarily in Africa, South and South East Asia, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, and the US. It also contains viewing copies of three Ministry of Information and government-commissioned films.
  • Drama online Drama online allows you to watch productions from Shakespeare's Globe theatre here. It also includes scripts to over 1200 plays.
  • Filmdoo Filmdoo is a streaming service for European and world cinema - no sign-up fee, you can pay for each film on demand.
  • Cineuropa Cineuropa is the first European portal dedicated to cinema and audiovisual in 4 languages. It includes streaming options (rent or purchase) for independent films from across Europe and elsewhere. The site also features daily news, interviews, data bases and in-depth investigations into the audiovisual industry.

Recommended online resources for Film Studies research

  • Bloomsbury Screen Studies Screen Studies is a dynamic digital platform designed to support moving-image studies. It offers a broad range of content including books, screenplays, overview articles and learning resources from Bloomsbury, Faber & Faber, the British Film Institute, Focal Press and Auteur (LUP).
  • Manchester Film & Media Studies Manchester Film & Media Studies is a collection of 210 books written by leading names in the field as well as one journal: Film Studies. It covers all aspects of film, television and media studies. (NB: not all books/articles may be accessible)
  • Screen Studies Collection A comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed and expansive filmographies. This collection includes the specialist index FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute; AFI Catalog and Film Index International.
  • Oxford Bibliographies: Film and media studies

General online resources on film

  • British Library: Online Gallery Search gateway for the British Library's collections. See also: British Library sound and vision blog.
  • British Film Institute The BFI promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom.
  • BFI Mediatheque Viewing Station Located in Cambridge Central Library where you can access over 2000 films from the BFI archive. 
  • BFI Screenonline The BFI guide to British film and TV history.
  • British Cartoon Archive The BCA holds the artwork for more than 150,000 British editorial, socio-political, and pocket cartoons, supported by large collections of comic strips, newspaper cuttings, books and magazines. The archive is located in Canterbury at the University of Kent, but is searchable online.
  • The Kubrick Site Resource archive for documentary materials regarding, in whole or in part, the work of the late American film director and producer Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999).
  • IMDb An online database of information related to films, television programs and video games, including cast, production crew, characters, biographies, plot summaries, and reviews (content is uploaded and edited by volunteers, it is moderated but may occasionally contain errors).
  • La Cinémathèque Française: La Bibliotheque Du Film Digitised articles, videos, advertising materials, journals and photographs from selected parts of the Cinémathèque Française library collections (website in French).
  • Film Archives Online Database of film archives, mostly documentary and educational films, newsreels, travelogue, advertising, scientific, industrial, experimental and sports films.
  • Senses of Cinema  Australian-based online journal of film. Includes festival reports, reviews and director profiles. 
  • British Universities Film & Video Council: News on Screen The B.U.F.V.C's newsreel website - The world’s leading resource for the study of newsreels and cinemagazines.
  • BBC Archive Archived collections of radio and TV programmes, documents and photographs from as far back as the 1930s.
  • Museum of Broadcast Communications: Online Collections Database Database of 11,338 records from the Museum of Broadcast Communication.

 

Help within college

Library staff can provide support and assistance. You can book an appointment with us or ask a question via library@girton.cam.ac.uk.