Film, Race & Representation: Some Strategies for Research

Film, Race & Representation:Some Strategies for Research

Film, Race & Representation:Some Strategies for Research Gary Handman Media Resources Center Moffitt Library ghandman@library.berkeley.edu 643-8566

The point of all this... • Describe the types of writing and research about film • Introduce selected sources for finding books and journal articles in film studies & related fields • Discuss how to select article databases (and determine what’s in them) • Discuss how to develop search strategies

Writing About Film… Scholarly/ In-depth Current Pop and fan Industry Historical

Sources for Film & Scholarship and Research • Periodicals (aka magazines, journals) • Newspapers • Reviews • Critical/Scholarly Articles • Books • Web Sites (more about this later…) • Other online databases

Periodical Articles:Reviews? Critical Writing? What’s the diff? • Reviews: • Assessment of aesthetic and content merits of a film • Found in popular periodicals, film periodicals, and (less often) in more scholarly journals • In pop periodicals: Current and Historical (older) • Usually cover current releases, more pop theatrical releases • Tend to be relatively short and relatively superficial (with some exceptions and depending on the publication and who’s doing the writing)

Periodical Articles:Reviews? Critical Writing? What’s the Diff? • Critical analysis: • Discuss films in: • broader historical, cultural, political, artistic context and/or • Focus on a specific aspect of a film, film genre, or filmmaker • Found in books and scholarly or film-related journals • Tend to be longer, more substantive than reviews (with some exceptions and depending on the publication and who’s doing the writing) • Often include notes, bibliographies, other scholarly apparatus

Critical/Scholarly Articles • Found in: • Film studies & scholarly journals in other disciplines—eg: • Language & Lit • Women’s studies • History • Ethnic Studies • Area studies…etc. • Web sites (even less occasionally…except for academic and commercial databases)

Film Scholarship & Film Criticism William Dickson (Edison labs) invents The Kinetoscope 1950’s 1960’s Film Studies Film Scholarship 1889 1895 Brothers Auguste & Louis Lumiere stage 1st public film screening, Paris Writing about film = fan and industry perspectives until 1950’s/60’s Movies = 100+ Years Film Scholarship = 50 years

Reviews Critical/ScholarlyArticles Massood, Paula. "Mapping the Hood, The Genealogy of City Space in Boyz-n-the-Hood and Menace-II-Society. Cinema Journal, 1996 winter, v35 n2:85-97. ) Ansen, David. "Boyz N the Hood." (movie reviews) Newsweek v118, n3 (July 15, 1991):56. • Scholarly Articles and Reviews

Books • Scholarly/authoritative works • Pop schlock and fan works • How Do You Tell em’ apart? • Author’s credentials/affiliations • Publisher (e.g. BFI, AFI, University Presses vs pop press) • Scholarly apparatus and sources: notes, bibliographies, other documentation • If they’ve been widely cited by other scholars

…But how do you locate all this stuff? • Catalogs: Pathfinder (Gladis) • Article databases (Indexes) Al Jolson

…But how do you locate all this stuff? Pathfinder • Inventory of what the Library owns: • Books • Journals (BUT NOT what’s inside of them!!!!!!) • Media • Manuscripts, documents, maps…etc. etc. etc. etc.) • Search by: • Author • Title • Subject (keywords)

Articles/Reviews (how do you find this stuff?) Article databases (aka Indexes) • Film-related (not many exist) • General news • Literary and Arts • Other disciplines: e.g. Women’s Studies, American Studies, Ethnic Studies, History…etc.

Article Databases (how do you know which ones to use?) Jumping Off point for Finding Online Indexes: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/

Once You Find a Journal Citation, How Do You Find the Article? • Some indexes provide holdings info [UC eLinks] • Some indexes link tofull-text If neither…use Pathfinder to look up the JOURNAL by title

Full-text! UCB Holdings!

How to Begin? Before you click: THINK • Formulate a concise, concrete statement of the research problem • Formulate your search in terms of • keywords and key phrases: The impact of televisionadvertising and television violence on school performanceandpre-adolesecentsocial interaction.

Commercials Ads …etc. Children Youth Adolescents …etc. Academic achievement Grades …etc. Socialization, relationships, peer interaction…etc. Media TV…etc How to Begin? Before you click: THINK • Think of synonyms for key words/phrases The impact of televisionadvertising and television violence on school performanceandpre-adolesecentsocial interaction.

Once you’ve found something that looks promising, Check out the “official” subject headings

Common Search Features: --Save list of good stuff --Mail Articles/Citations to yourself

The Information Universe • Remember Also: • Not every topic has lots written about it, either in books or journal lit. • --Research on very current topics • --Research on extremely specific topics • --Research on topics off the beaten academic track or off the pop culture radar

What to do if too much is turning up: • Narrow your topic: • e.g.: geographically, chronologically; by race, gender, ethnic group; • Specific focus or aspect of the topic (e.g. ethical, social, economic, political aspects) • What to do if nothing is turning up: • Broaden your topic / go for the more general / select a different angle • Rethink your search strategy (new keywords, new concepts, etc.) • Bail out and choose another topic

Connecting from off-campus PROXY Server! Instructions at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ HELP/CONNECTING FROM OFF CAMPUS

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/FilmBibMenu.html • a growing listing of bibliographies on various film topics and individual films compiled by MRC (includes bibs for genres, filmmakers, national cinemas, and individual film).

…being driven totally bananas by your research? Call me: Gary Handman 643-8566 ghandman@library.berkeley.edu

Film, Race & Representation: Some Strategies for Research