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selected websites useful for moving image research
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN)
"Our Stories. Our Voices. Award-winning television programming by, for and about Indigenous Peoples to share with all Canadians."
AFI Catalog of Feature Films
The AFI Catalog of Feature Films, also known as the AFI Catalog, is an ongoing project by the American Film Institute to catalog all commercially-made and theatrically-exhibited American motion pictures from the birth of cinema in 1893 to the present. [Wikipedia]
Canadian Film Institute
The Canadian Film Institute’s (CFI) mission is to encourage and promote the production, diffusion, study, appreciation and use of moving images for cultural and educational purposes in Canada and abroad.
Canadian Women Film Directors Database
a bilingual research tool about Canadian women directors and their films
The Complete Index to World Film since 1895
database of over 300,000 films compiled by Alan Goble
Film Studies Association of Canada
The Film Studies Association of Canada (FSAC) is a non-profit scholarly organization, founded in 1977, which seeks to foster and advance the study of the history and art of film and related fields in Canada and abroad. The FSAC publishes the Canadian Journal of Film Studies.
imagineNATIVE
imagineNATIVE is committed to creating a greater understanding of Indigenous peoples and cultures through the presentation of contemporary Indigenous-made media art including film, video, audio and digital media.
Inuit Broadcasting Corporation
“The Inuit Broadcasting Corporation provides a window to the Arctic by producing award-winning television programming by Inuit, for Inuit. IBC is indeed, Nunavut’s public producer. IBC producers make programming about one of the richest and enduring cultures in our nation, the Inuit of Canada, in the language Inuit speak…Inuktitut.”
iPortal (Indigenous Studies Portal Research Tool)
The Indigenous Studies Portal (iPortal) is a database of full-text electronic resources such as articles, e-books, theses, government publications, videos, oral histories, and digitized archival documents and photographs. Includes scholarly articles on film.
IsumaTV
"IsumaTV is a collaborative multimedia platform for indigenous filmmakers and media organizations. Each user can design their own space, or channel, to reflect their own identity, mandate and audience.
"The collective platform currently carries over 6000 videos, and thousands of other images and audio files, in more than 80 different languages, on 800+ user-controlled channels, representing cultures and media organizations from Canada, U.S.A., Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and all over Latin America."
Lux
LUX is a London-based international arts agency that supports and promotes artists’ moving image practices and the ideas that surround them.
The organization’s main activities are distribution, exhibition, publishing, education, research, and professional development support for artists and arts professionals.
National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and alternative dramas. [Wikipedia]
Society for Cinema and Media Studies (research resources page)
includes a list of film/media journals
The Society for Cinema and Media Studies is the leading scholarly organization in the United States dedicated to promoting a broad understanding of film, television, and related media through research and teaching grounded in the contemporary humanities tradition.
UbuWeb
"In 1996, during the relatively early days of the web, Kenneth Goldsmith created UbuWeb to post hard-to-find works of concrete poetry. What started out as a site to share works from a relatively obscure literary movement grew into an essential archive of twentieth- and twenty-first-century avant-garde and experimental literature, film, and music." [Columbia University Press]
The Women Film Pioneers Project (WFPP)
The Women Film Pioneers Project (WFPP) is a digital publication and resource that advances research on the hundreds of women who worked behind the scenes during the silent film era. Always expanding, WFPP publishes original scholarship on women who worked all around the world as directors, producers, screenwriters, editors, and more.
find film reviews
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
"IMDb is an online database of information related to films, television programs, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews." [Wikipedia]
Media History Digital Library (Lantern)
Lantern is the search platform for the collections of the Media History Digital Library, an open access initiative. The Media History Digital Library (MHDL) digitizes collections of classic media periodicals that belong in the public domain for full public access.
Metacritic
“We carefully curate a large group of the world’s most respected critics, assign scores to their reviews, and apply a weighted average to summarize the range of their opinions. The result is a single number that captures the essence of critical opinion in one Metascore.
“Metascore is a weighted average in that we assign more importance, or weight, to some critics and publications than others, based on their quality and overall stature.”
Movie Review Query Engine (MRQE)
The Movie Review Query Engine is a database of movie reviews for over 100,000 titles. The site provides a searchable index of published and available reviews, news, interviews, and other materials associated with specific movies.
Rotten Tomatoes
“The Tomatometer score – based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics – is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans.
“The Tomatometer score represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show. A Tomatometer score is calculated for a movie or TV show after it receives at least five reviews.”
film analysis and terminology
Film Analysis (Yale University)
The Film Analysis Guide was developed to meet the needs of faculty and students at Yale who are interested in becoming familiar with the vocabulary of film studies and the techniques of cinema. The user can either read the complete document or search out a particular topic of interest, for example cinematography, editing, or sound.
FilmLand - dictionary of film, audio, and video terminology
The Dictionary is an extensive on-line reference of film, video and audio terminology as applicable to production and post-production.
selected Canadian organizations supporting artist-made film and video
Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC)
CFMDC is a not-for-profit, non-commercial media arts distributor that specializes in independent, artist-made work on film and video including works from historically underrepresented communities.
Through a unique and successful national and international distribution service, CFMDC makes its collection available for preview, rental or sale for the purposes of research, exhibition, screening and broadcast.
Centre for Art Tapes (Halifax)
The Centre for Art Tapes is a not for profit artist-run, charitable, organization that facilitates and supports artists at all levels working with electronic media including video, audio, and new media.
Cineworks (Vancouver)
Cineworks is an independent filmmakers society—an artist-run production and exhibition centre that supports independent filmmakers and media artists. It is based in Vancouver.
Digital Arts Resource Centre (Ottawa)
Digital Arts Resource Centre (formerly SAW Video) is a not-for-profit, artist-run media art centre that fosters the growth and development of artists through access to equipment, training, mentorship, and programming.
Ed Video Media Arts Centre (Guelph)
“As a charitable artist-run centre, our mission is to foster the creation, exhibition and appreciation of media arts. Ed Video Media Arts Centre is a leader in the creation, promotion and appreciation of independent media art in Canada.”
Gallery TPW (Toronto)
Gallery TPW is a leading artist-run centre dedicated to exhibiting underrepresented artistic and curatorial practices that push the boundaries of lens-based work.
Iris Film Collective (Vancouver)
Iris Film Collective is a Vancouver-based group of independent artists creating, exhibiting and touring film-based works—single channel, expanded, sculptural, installation—with the goal of increasing the visibility and accessibility of experimental media art. Above all, our interest is in ciné film—actual celluloid—at a time when this medium is shifting to a post-industry model.
LIFT (Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto)
“The Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT) is an artist-run charitable organization dedicated to facilitating excellence in the moving image through media arts education and production resources. LIFT exists to provide support and encouragement for independent filmmakers and artists.”
Pleasure Dome (Toronto)
Pleasure Dome is an artist-run presentation organization and publisher dedicated to experimental media. Our organization is committed to presenting artists who expand, fracture, and scrutinize the traditional cinematic spectacle, including those who use moving image technologies that are digital, interactive, or performative.
Video Pool Media Arts Centre (Winnipeg)
Video Pool Media Arts Centre is Manitoba’s only artist-run centre dedicated to the exploration of technology-based art.
VIVO Media Arts Centre (Vancouver)
"VIVO Media Arts Centre, incorporated as Satellite Video Exchange Society, is a steward of critical history and an agent for emergent experimental media arts practices. Our programs foster formal and critical approaches to media arts, and reflect the diversity of contemporary technologies and communities that coalesce around new forms of knowledge and creativity."
Vtape
Vtape is a vibrant distribution organization that represents an international collection of contemporary and historical video art and media works by artists. We make this collection accessible to curators and programmers, educators, scholars and public audiences worldwide.
Yukon Film Society
The Yukon Film Society supports media art creation with equipment and artistic development; presents cinema, exhibitions, festivals and performances; and distributes Yukon film and media art in partnership with the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture through the streaming service Available Light on Demand.
