Doing Research in the Dark: A Radically Attenuated Lesson in Film Studies Resources at UCB

1. Doing Research in the Dark: A Radically Attenuated Lesson in Film Studies Resources at UCB

2. Film and TV Are: • Everywhere and Unavoidable • Big Business (& Big Business=Big Hype=Questionable Info) • The Focus of Endless Interdisciplinary Inquiry: (as aesthetic form; social/cultural text and artifact; psycho- sexual projection; as gender, race construction, etc. etc. etc. etc.) • The Focus of Endless (and often endlessly weird) Popular Inquiry, Fixation & Fetish

3. Film and TV Topics Constitute: • A big slug of the web: the bad, the weird, and the useful: • Fan sites • Studio and other commercial sites • Academic sites (in the minority) • A booming part of the pop publishing industry (the bad, the weird, and the useful) • An increasingly large part of the trade list of academic publishers • Focus of print and electronic scholarship in a dizzying array of disciplines

4. So…How to Spend Our Time Today? • Big Box Office Questions: • Criticism and scholarly analysis across disciplines • Reviews • Credits & other production info

5. So…How to Spend Our Time Today? Most of what I’m about to talk about is posted at: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/filmstudies/index.html

6. The Big Box Office Questions "How do I find critical analysis of Blade Runner." • http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/filmstudies/ • reviewslist.html a table of basic online and print review/criticism sources with links • 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).

7. Critical Analysis of Blade Runner." • Faves and raves for citations to critical analysis in historical/cultural context: • International Index to Film/TV Periodicals (La Federation Internationale des Archives du Film [FIAF]) • MLA (Modern Language Assn. Bibliography) • International Index to the Performing Arts; • Art Abstracts/AA Retrospective; • America History & Life • Expanded Academic Index: include both national news magazines/newspaper and (MAGS) central film studies journals (some full-text): including Cineaste American Film, Film Comment, Film Criticism, Film Quarterly, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Journal of Film and Video, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Literature/Film Quarterly, Sight and Sound, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Variety.

8. Critical Analysis of Blade Runner." • Also worth scoping out: • Periodicals Contents Index(particularly for older titles) • SSCI and A&HCI; Essay & Gen Lit Index • Film Index International (British Film Institute) Links to selected reviews (with emphasis on Brit stuff) from entries for individual movies: http://fii.chadwyck.com/ • Film Literature Index (FLI) (print) • (1973 --): best single printed source of international film studies literature

9. "How do I find critical analysis of Blade Runner." • --Other full-text: PROJECT MUSEincludes full-text of articles in Wide Angle; Camera Obscura (feminist film studies). • --Substantive film studies e-journals with full-text articles, including freebies, such as Bright Lights; Senses of Cinema (indexed in MLA) (see http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/ • filmstudies/filmjournals.html for links to these and others) • --Check Pathfinder for separately published monographs, screenplays, etc. --World Cat: Use to find book chapters

10. The Big Box Office Questions "How do I find a review of "The Matrix.” • Movie Review Query Engine(http://www.mrqe.com/): Includes full-text of R. Ebert (Chicago Sun Times), selected NYT, Washington Post, and others too weird or off-the-wall to mention. • Expanded Academic Index (much full-text!) • ProQuest: picks up pop publications not coveredelsewhere online (e.g. Premiere)(some full-text). Includes some full-text from Variety • Lexis/Nexis (News/Arts & Sports/Source: Book, Movie, Music & Play Reviews): some-full text (e.g. LA Times, SF Chronicle, Boston Globe, some NYT • Also worth scoping out: Ethnic Newswatch, Alternative Press Index Online, Women's Resource International (for non-mainstream cultural perspectives)

11. "How do I find a historical review of Gone With the Wind?" • --Readers Guide Retrospective(older volumes: under Motion Pictures -- Reviews,or even earlier:Moving Picture Plays) • --NYT Index or NYT Film Review Index (PRINT) (Main/Ref; MRC) For early film, see also • --New York Times Film Reviews (6 vol. 1913/1968-1995/96) (print) Reproductions of reviews (Main Ref) • --Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) - Includes full-text articles New York Times (1851-1999) • --Historical Newspapers Online - Includes cites to NYT 1863 to 1905 • -- Film Review Index (Patricia and Stephen Hanson, eds.) (print) 1882-1985. Best retrospective review coverage. (MRC and Main Stacks) • --Periodicals Contents Index 1770-1995, first issue– indexing of articles in arts and social sciences

12. The Big Box Office Questions • I'm doing a research paper on the image of the disabled (African Americans, the apocalypse, God, gays and lesbians, alcoholism…etc. etc. etc.) in the movies. • --Use Film Index International or American Film Institute (both on library web ) to identify movies by theme or genre • --Pathfinder/CDL: [Whatever] in Motion Pictures(watch in particular for topical guides,e.g. Norden, Martin F. The Cinema of Isolation: A History of Physical Disability in the Movies. • --Consult indexes and other resources discussed earlier. NB: widely varying subject terminology for each index: e.g., disabled, film (MLA); Disabled persons -- Portrayals, depictions, etc. (Expanded Academic Index); Handicapped in motion pictures (Pathfinder)

13. The Big Box Office Questions • I'm doing a research paper on the image of the disabled (African Americans, the apocalypse, God, gays and lesbians, alcoholism…etc. etc. etc.) in the movies. • --MRC Videographies / Bibliographies • Organized topically, by genre, themes, language/Country

14. The Big Box Office Questions I’m writing about a movie and I need to know who starred in it (or directed it, or produced it). I need to know what other movies the director, star, producer made. • --American Film Institute (AFI Index) (library web) US film 1893 to 1970 (except 1951 to 1960) (also available in print Main Huma and MRC) • --British Film Institute (BFI) Film Index International (library web) • --stronger for sound era • --no animation • --The Motion Picture Guide (thru 1999) • (CD-ROM and print in MRC) • --Internet Movie Database (web: http://us.imdb.com/): unlike above, info is supplied by users--so be wary

15. The Big Box Office Questions "How do I find a review of a documentary I saw last month on PBS Frontline or in the Media Center?” • --Good luck! Reviews of documentary works (other than stuff by Ken Burns and other big names) are rarer than subtle Tarantino movies. • --Try: Media Review Digest (via Library/Indexes); Expanded Academic Index; Film Literature Index (the TV section) • --Spotty coverage in subject literature: use appropriate indexes: for e.g. America History and Life; Anthropological Literature (RLG) (for ethnography)

16. The Big Box Office Questions "How do I hook up with all this cool stuff from off campus?” • LibraryProxyService!

17. Looking for a movie, a documentary, etc. etc. etc. to watch…

18. Intermission Popcorn? Junior Mints? Questions? Say the magic woid and an answer comes down... Gary Handman ghandman@library.berkeley.edu 643-8566