Documentary Research

Use this guide as a path to resources on:

• Articles and books useful for researching for documentary films
• Resources about documentary films and the doc fim industry

Find books by searching:
Try an Advanced Search in the library catlog on specific topics you are researching. 
         
Example: 
Prison? detention conviction crim?      any of these    in      Keyword Anywhere
AND youth adolescent juvenile            any of these    in     Keyword Anywhere
Note:  ? truncates so  prison?  will retrieve prisoner or prisons  ;
"any of these" is ORing the terms together  (find the keyword youth OR adolescent OR juvenile)

Find videos by searching:
Go to the Film tab on the library's homepage.  You can search the director's name, the film's title, or a keyword.  The search default limits to videos. Jot down the DVD number and bring it to the Multimedia Service desk in the library; they'll check it out to you.  Return the video to the Multimedia Service desk.

Find books about doc films as well as doc films to watch by subject:

• Documentary Films
• Documentary films Authorship
• Documentary films--History and criticism
• Documentary films--Production and direction
• Documentary television programs
• Emmy Awards
• Instructional films
• Nonfiction films
• Piracy (Copyright)
• Promotional films  Promotional films about Ithaca College

Ebooks

• Insider\'s guide to independent film distribution
• The Avid handbook [electronic resource] : advanced techniques, strategies, and survival information for Avid editing systems / Greg Staten, Steve Bayes.
• The business of media distribution [electronic resource] : monetizing film, TV, and video content / Jeff Ulin.
• Documentary in the digital age [electronic resource] / Maxine Baker
• Filmmakers and financing [electronic resource] : business plans for independents / Louise Levison.
• Hands-on guide to streaming media [electronic resource] : an introduction to delivering on-demand media / Joe Follansbee.
• Hands-on guide to video blogging and podcasting [electronic resource] / Damien Stolarz, Lionel Felix
• IFP/Los Angeles independent filmmaker’s manual [electronic resource] / Eden H. Wurmfeld, Nicole Laloggia ***only one person can view this e-book at a time
• Picture composition for film and television [electronic resource] / Peter Ward
• Swimming upstream [electronic resource] : a lifesaving guide to short film distribution / [edited by] Sharon Badal.
• The videomaker guide to video production [electronic resource]
• Browse books on Documentary Films

Library databases:

General:

• CQ Researcher
  Comprehensive reporting and analysis on current issues in the news. Each report includes an introductory overview; background and chronology on the topic; an assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; pro/con statements from representatives of opposing positions; and bibliographies of key sources.
• Academic Search Premier
  Multi-disciplinary database which includes a large collection of peer-reviewed journals in many areas of academic study including: archaeology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, ethnic & multicultural studies, law, mathematics, music, physics, psychology, religion & theology, women's studies, and other fields.  Coverage varies, but begins in the 1990s for most journals.
• Academic OneFile
  Peer-reviewed, full-text articles from journals and reference sources. Coverage includes the sciences, technology, medicine, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects. Also includes transcripts and audio from all National Public Radio programs. Available in both PDF and HTML full-text; updated daily. Coverage is from 1980-present.
  
• General OneFile
  Current journal and news information in humanities, education, business, science, art, politics, economics, social sciences, law, health care, computers, technology and environmental issues.
  
• LexisNexis Academic
  Full-text access to continuously updated news, law, and business information. Highlights: News: newswires, transcripts, regional, national/international news, & Gallup Polls; Legal: law review articles, federal case law, and federal/state codes; Business: company profiles, country profiles, and SEC filings; People: directories from the entertainment industry, elected officials, executives, politicians, and obituaries.  Also has a section that includes full-text of several health newsletters and abstracts of articles in major medical journals.

Subject oriented (see our Research Guides to discover additional subject databases):

• Communication and Mass Media Complete (CMMC)   Subjects in the Thesaurus include: Documentary Films; Nonfiction
• Film Literature Index (Archive) Online (1976-2001)
  Index to backfiles of citations of film literature including international film, television and video. Citations from 1976 to 2001. There are no plans to update this online resource.

Publications of interest to doc filmmakers

• Broadcasting & cable
• Documentary (IDA)
• indieWire
• Studies in Documentary Film (2007- present)
• Filmmaker: the Magazine of Independent Film  
• Hollywood reporter
• Mediaweek (New York, N.Y.)
• Variety

• Bound by Law?: Tales from the Public Domain / Keith Aoki, James Boyle, Jennifer Jenkins (2006). Available free online
• Clearance and copyright : everything you need to know for film and televsion / by Michael C. Donaldson. (2008, 3rd rev ed.)
• Copyright for the Rest of Us: A guide for people who aren't lawyers
  June 2011 by Marcia Keyser, a librarian at Drake University. This book is available in 11 chapters and is free through eScholarShare@Drake.
  
• Copyright Watch: A repository of links and resources connected to the changes in copyright law across the world.
• Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use / Center for Social Media handbook
• Getting permission : how to license & clear copyrighted materials online and off / by Richard Stim. (2010, 4thed.). General Stacks. KF3002 .S75 2010
  
• Local Educational Institutions / Ithaca College & Cornell University's pages associated with copyright & piracy
• The pocket lawyer for filmmakers [electronic resource] : a legal toolkit for independent producers / by Thomas A. Crowell. (2011, 2d ed.). Available online through Ebrary.
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies' Statement on Fair Use  Their are best practices for fair use, teaching & film stills.

See also: U. S. Copyright Office
According to the U. S. Constitution, the Copyright Office was established, “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

Festivals:

• Directory of International Film & Video Festivals (britfilms.com)
• Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF)

Internet streaming sites (besides YouTube):

• Current TV
• Forum Network
• Free Speech TV
• Hobnox
• Hulu:  Documentaries
• IndiePix films
• Jaman
• Joost: Documentary
• Link TV
• National Film Board of Canada: Online Films
• Open Vault (WGBH)
• PBS Video
• SnagFilms

AV Stock (check for permissions):

• CCMixter
• Creative Commons
• Findsounds.com
• FOOTAGE.net
  Stock footage from 1994-present
• Free Sound Effects
• fxhome.com
• Moving Image Archive
• Prelinger Archives
• Reanimation Library Image Collection
• Squidoo Freesounds

Reviews and Overviews:

• Boxoffice.com
• Docuseek
• IMDB Internet Movie Database
• metacritic.com
• Movieretriever.com
• Rotten Tomatoes

Organizations:

• British Film Institute
• Center for Social Media (CSM)
  
• George Eastman House: International Museum of Photography and Film
• International Documentary Association
• New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT)
• University Film and Video Association
• Women in Film & Video (D.C.)
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)

 Select Distributors:

• Acorn Media Group  Special focus on Brit tv and mind-body-spirit programming
• Bullfrogfilms  Independently produced films on the environment
• California Newsreel   Film and video for social change since 1968.  Students may find their online publication A Producers' Guide to Digital Rights Management useful. It is written from a business perspective.
• Cinema Guild  Releases independent, foreign and documentary films
• Documentary Educational Resources  Sales, distribution and production of global ethnographic films
• Docurama  "Critically acclaimed and cutting edge ducmentaries"
• Energized Films (Rachel Gordon) Company that connects non-fiction films with collegiate, non-profit & other specialty markets
• Facets Independent world and classic films
• Fanlight  Innovative films on social issues, especially healthcare topics
• IndiePix  Global distributor of independent film.
• First Run phoebe Film   Global distributor of independent doc film
• Kino Lorber Edu   Social Justice, Human Rights, Social Studies, Science , Philosophy, Religion, etc.
• National Film Board (NFB)   Makes films available to Canadian citizens
• New Day Films  Independently produced films on social issues
• New Yorker Films
• Palisades Tartan  Asian and art house films
• PBS Video  Purchase programs that appeared on PBS
• Re:frame  (Tribeca Film Institutute) Place filmmakers can digitize and sell their work
• The Video Project   Doc media on global and social issues
• Women Make Movies  Films by and about women
• Zeitgeist  Films capturing the "spirit of the times"

Commercial Vendors of popular television and film for home entertainment:

• Amazon.com
• Blockbuster on demand
• Image Entertainment
• iTunes
• Magnolia pictures
• Netflix
• Vutopia (in development 12/10)

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SnagFilms distributes documentaries for no charge but it includes ads. Watch more free documentaries

• Intro to Field Production
• Journalism Research
• Media Writing
• Public Domain Material

Documentary Studies and Production department at Ithaca College.

• Where can I find film or entertainment reviews?

Noodlebib guides you through the required data entry for citation in the MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian styles. It takes care of punctuation, alphabetization and formatting, producing a polished source list for import into Word.

•  Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television
  REF PN2012 .W52
• Dictionary of film finance and distribution : a guide for independent filmmakers
  REF PN1993.5.A1 C642 2008
• Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film
  REF PN1995.9.D6 E53 2006
• Film encyclopedia (1994)
  REF PN1993.45 .K34 1994
• Film writers directory
  REF PN1996.F447
• Filmmaker's dictionary 2nd ed.
  REF PN1993.45 .S56 2000
• Hollywood Creative Directory
  REF PN1998 .A1 H58
• International film guide
  REF PN1993.3 .I545
• International dictionary of films and filmmakers
  REF PN1997.8 .I58 1990 v.1-3

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