by Meghan Kowalski on 2025-11-19T08:00:00-05:00 | 0 Comments
Lights, camera, action! Whether you’re a casual movie fan or a devoted cinephile, you can find a wealth of high-quality information available through both library collections and trusted online film resources.
UDC Library Resources
Digital Media Research Guide - UDC's Digital Media program is designed to expose, explore, and solve the urban problems of the city via digital media, newsgathering, reporting and editing, and video and film production. Recommended links you’ll find here include the Library of Congress Moving Image Research Center.
Docuseek Complete - More than 3,000 documentary films on a variety of topics available for streaming.
Drama Online - This award-winning digital library is the only resource to combine exclusively available play text content and scholarly publications with filmed live performances, film adaptations, and audio plays.
The Routledge Companion to Film History is an indispensable guide for anyone studying film history for the first time. The approach taken presents a substantial and readable overview of the field and provides students with a tool of reference that will be valuable throughout their studies. The volume is divided into two parts. The first is a set of eleven essays that approaches film history around the following themes: History of the moving image Film as art and popular culture Production process Evolution of sound Alternative modes: experimental, documentary, animation Cultural difference Film's relationship to history The second is a critical dictionary that explains concepts, summarizes debates in film studies, defines technical terms, describes major periods and movements, and discusses historical situations and the film industry. The volume as a whole is designed as an active system of cross-references: readers of the essays are referred to dictionary entries (and vice versa) and both provide short bibliographies that encourage readers to investigate topics.
Channeling a focus on the history of cinema into the present and beyond, Persistent Images: Encountering Film History in Contemporary Cinema explores the continuing resonance of the memory of cinema as revealed in the technological and aesthetic expressions of a range of experimental practices.
This authoritative collection of introductory and specialized readings explores the rich and innovative history of this period in American cinema. Spanning an essential range of subjects from the early 1900s Nickelodeon to the decline of the studio system in the 1960s, it combines a broad historical context with careful readings of individual films. Charts the rise of film in early twentieth-century America from its origins to 1960, exploring mainstream trends and developments, along with topics often relegated to the margins of standard film histories Covers diverse issues ranging from silent film and its iconic figures such as Charlie Chaplin, to the coming of sound and the rise of film genres, studio moguls, and, later, the Production Code and Cold War Blacklist Designed with both students and scholars in mind: each section opens with an historical overview and includes chapters that provide close, careful readings of individual films clustered around specific topics Accessibly structured by historical period, offering valuable cultural, social, and political contexts Contains careful, close analysis of key filmmakers and films from the era including D.W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Erich von Stroheim, Cecil B. DeMille, Don Juan, The Jazz Singer, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Scarface, Red Dust, Glorifying the American Girl, Meet Me in St. Louis, Citizen Kane, Bambi, Frank Capra's Why We Fightseries, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Rebel Without a Cause, Force of Evil, and selected American avant-garde and underground films, among many others. Additional online resources such as sample syllabi, which include suggested readings and filmographies for both general specialized courses, will be available online. May be used alongside American Film History: Selected Readings, 1960 to the Present, to provide an authoritative study of American cinema through the new millennium
From the American underground film to the blockbuster superhero, this authoritative collection of introductory and specialized readings explores the core issues and developments in American cinematic history during the second half of the twentieth-century through the present day. Considers essential subjects that have shaped the American film industry--from the impact of television and CGI to the rise of independent and underground film; from the impact of the civil rights, feminist and LGBT movements to that of 9/11. Features a student-friendly structure dividing coverage into the periods 1960-1975, 1976-1990, and 1991 to the present day, each of which opens with an historical overview Brings together a rich and varied selection of contributions by established film scholars, combining broad historical, social, and political contexts with detailed analysis of individual films, including Midnight Cowboy, Nashville, Cat Ballou, Chicago, Back to the Future, Killer of Sheep, Daughters of the Dust, Nothing But a Man, Ali, Easy Rider, The Conversation, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Longtime Companion, The Matrix, The War Tapes, the Batman films, and selected avant-garde and documentary films, among many others. Additional online resources, such as sample syllabi, which include suggested readings and filmographies, for both general and specialized courses, will be available online. May be used alongside American Film History: Selected Readings, Origins to 1960 to provide an authoritative study of American cinema from its earliest days through the new millennium
Is a film watched on a video screen still cinema? Have digital compositing, motion capture, and other advanced technologies remade or obliterated the craft? Rooted in their hypothesis of the "double birth of media," André Gaudreault and Philippe Marion take a positive look at cinema's ongoing digital revolution and reaffirm its central place in a rapidly expanding media landscape. The authors begin with an overview of the extreme positions held by opposing camps in the debate over cinema: the "digitalphobes" who lament the implosion of cinema and the "digitalphiles" who celebrate its new, vital incarnation. Throughout, they remind readers that cinema has never been a static medium but a series of processes and transformations powering a dynamic art. From their perspective, the digital revolution is the eighth major crisis in the history of motion pictures, with more disruptions to come. Brokering a peace among all sides, Gaudreault and Marion emphasize the cultural practice of cinema over rigid claims on its identity, moving toward a common conception of cinema to better understand where it is headed next.
Historic Movie Theaters in the DMV
AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center - The AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, is one of the nation’s premier film centers, exploring and celebrating new and classic films and filmmakers from around the globe. Anchored by the stunningly restored 1938 Silver Theatre, the three-screen AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center is a state-of-the-art film and digital media exhibition venue, which serves as a national model for preserving and honoring our shared film and filmgoing heritage. AFI Silver is a program of the American Film Institute, which was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.
The Avalon - The oldest operating movie house in the Washington, DC region, the Avalon Theater has been a cornerstone of its community since its opening in 1923. After the theater was abruptly closed in 2001, a grassroots effort by the newly formed Avalon Theater Project successfully restored the historic theatre and it reopened in 2003. The Avalon screens a diverse selection of film that includes its Wednesday Signature Series, first-run studio films, independent and foreign films, and special programs for students, children, and seniors. It proudly celebrates both its 100th birthday and 20 years as a community-centered nonprofit in 2023.
Recommended Websites
The Internet Archive: Moving Pictures Collection – The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, people with print disabilities, and the general public. Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge.
The Internet Movie Database – The largest collection of movie facts, including cast information, production details, trivia, and user reviews.
Kanopy at the DC Public Library - Stream over 30,000 movies & documentaries from hundreds of popular producers as well as thousands of independent filmmakers. A library card is required, but all UDC students can acquire one even if they don’t live in the District.
Library of Congress Moving Image Research Center - The Moving Image Research Center provides access and information services to an international community of film and television professionals, archivists, scholars, and researchers. The Library of Congress began collecting motion pictures in 1893 when Thomas Edison and his brilliant assistant W.K.L. Dickson deposited the Edison Kinetoscopic Records for copyright. Today the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) holds approximately 1.9 million items and is responsible for the acquisition, cataloging and preservation of the Library's motion picture and television collections.
The Paley Center for Media - The Paley Center for Media is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that operates the iconic Paley Museum in New York, which has been named The City’s Best “Best Museum” and “Best Children’s Party Place” for two years running. Through its respected programming, the Paley Center leads the discussion about the cultural, creative, and social significance of media, drawing upon its curatorial expertise, an international collection, and close relationships with the media community.
The Routledge Companion to Film History by
Persistent Images by
American Film History by
American Film History by
The End of Cinema? by
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