Film Studies: Primary sources
Subject guide to library resources for Film Studies
Which primary sources are useful for Film Studies?
Films are the main primary source you will use in Film Studies. However there are other sources such as adverts, reviews of films, interviews with directors and articles from magazines and newspapers that can provide context giving you an insight into attitudes or cultural issues at the time a film was released.
You may need to know the historical or cultural context of films
- Media history digital library provides access to digitised collections of classic media periodicals
- Current newspapers and historical newspaper archives are useful for reviews of films and to give an insight into cultural and social issues
- Film Index International includes production information, citations for reviews and information on cinema workers.
- You can find images from Flickr: The Commons.
- To view old movie posters IMBD and CineFiles are good.
- Stills from historic film clips can be found browsing the British Pathé Galleries