Subject Librarian
Dartmouth College
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Overviews
Refer to related subject guides for encyclopedias and other background sources specific to a region or topic. The following two chronologies are useful in setting a film in context historically:
- Calendar of Creative Man byCall Number: Baker/Berry Ref. NX 447.5 .P38ISBN: 0871964708This book focuses on the arts, with chronological listings for literature, dance/drama, music, architecture, three-dimensional art, and visual arts. Coverage through 1970.
Chronology of world history: a calendar of principal events from 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1973 by Call Number: Baker-Berry Ref. D 11 .M39 1999 v.1-3ISBN: 9780901720672This four volume set includes 70,000 events compiled by 27 contributing editors, constitutes the most complete and current chronology of world history ever created. Entries ranging from Art and Economics to Politics and Technology, and cover both major and minor events throughout world history. ...
News Sources
While not a complete list, these are our primary online sources for domestic & foreign newspapers.
- Nexis UniNational & international newspapers, wire services, radio & television transcripts.
LexisNexis Academic Tutorials - PressReaderA database of regional, national and international newspapers. The time limit is the last 60 days. Many countries are represented in the archive.
Proquest historical newspapers by Call Number: Electronic resourcesA collection of major regional and ethnic newspapers from their beginning date to a date in the near past. The New York Times goes until 3 years ago, while the Boston Globe only goes to 1989. The Chicago Defender goes from 1905 to 1975.- U.S. Newsstream byCall Number: Electronic resourceThis database lets you search a collection of current newspapers. Coverage varies from 1980 to the present. You can search a few or all of the newspapers in the collection.
- Newspaper source plus byCall Number: Electronic resourceProvides cover-to-cover full text for 23 national (U.S.) and international newspapers, including USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The Times (London), The Toronto Star, etc.
The database also contains selected full text from more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers, including The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Miami Herald, The New York Daily News, The San Jose Mercury News, etc.
In addition, full text television & radio news transcripts are provided from CBS News, FOX News, NPR, etc.
Introduction
... With the rise of the postwar new waves and the decline of cinema going as a mass leisure pursuit, sociology shifted attention from audiences to films, art cinema and film movements in particular. A sociology of art approach to cinema, for example, calls for attention to the cultural contexts in which films and film movements arise, and may also concern itself with the implicit ideologies underlying films’ plots and styles. ...
Kuhn, A. & Westwell, G. (2012). "Sociology and film." In A Dictionary of Film Studies. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved 3 Aug. 2016.
In the library catalog
The following are relevant subject headings. You can browse the print collection on Baker Stack Level 4 in the call number range PN 1995.9 .S6.
- motion pictures social aspectsThis is the more general subject search. You can add a country's name after this search to narrow your results.
- ... in motion picturesIf you want to see how a theme is handle in movies, you put the word in front of "in motion pictures." An example is "sex in motion pictures."
Introductory reading(s)
Beyond the screen: institutions, networks and publics of early cinema by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780861967032The visionaries of early motion pictures thought that movies could do more than just entertain. They imagined the medium had the potential to educate and motivate the audience. In national and local contexts from Europe, North America, and around the world, early filmmakers entered the domains of science and health education, social and religious uplift, labor organizing and political campaigning.
The social science of cinema by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780199797813This book compiles research from such varied disciplines as psychology, economics, sociology, business, and communications to find the best empirical research being done on the movies, based on perspectives that many filmgoers have never considered. ...
In glorious technicolor : a century of film and how it has shaped us by Call Number: Baker/Berry PN 1995.9 .S6 S746 2011ISBN: 9780701183950
Selected book titles
To find more books, click here.
Bollywood and Postmodernism: popular Indian cinema in the 21st Century by Call Number: Baker/Berry PN 1993.5 .I8 W75 2015ISBN: 9780748696345'New Bollywood' has arrived, but its postmodern impulse often leaves film scholars reluctant to theorise its aesthetics. How do we define the style of a contemporary Bollywood film? Are Bollywood films just uninspired Hollywood rip-offs, or does their borrowing signal genuine innovation within the industry?
Cult Film As a Guide to Life: fandom, adaptation, and identity by Call Number: Baker/Berry PN 1995.9 .C84 H86 2016ISBN: 9781623565107Cult Film as a Guide to Life investigates the world and experience of cult films, from well-loved classics to the worst movies ever made.
Hollywood Riots: violent crowds and progressive politics in American film by Call Number: Baker/Berry PN 1995.9 .P6 D52 2016ISBN: 9781780766324The large literature about the politics of Hollywood in the period of McCarthy and the blacklist has largely overlooked political film-making during those agitated years. Hollywood Riots examines the most vibrant cycle of independently produced political films made while House Committee on Un-American Activities was investigating communists in the film industry.
Soured on the System: disaffected men in 20th century American film by Call Number: Baker/Berry PN 1995.9 .M46 S34 2012ISBN: 9780786469918This work analyzes popular films produced in the years of significant historical change from 1946 to the end of the twentieth century. Although the American middle class expanded significantly with the economic prosperity that followed World War II, postwar films often depict middle-class men as discontented with the mundane nature of work and with declining autonomy in an increasingly corporate-bureaucratic society.
Ten Arab Filmmakers: political dissent and social critique by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780253016522Ten Arab Filmmakers provides an up-to-date overview of the best of Arab cinema, offering studies of leading directors and in-depth analyses of their most important films. The filmmakers profiled here represent principal national cinemas of the Arab world--Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Syria.
Finding journal articles
You can search various publications to find articles on society and film. Our collection does have a couple of journals that cover the topic exclusively. Their titles are listed below. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find more articles or use the search box at the top of the page.
Journal of popular film & television by Call Number: Electronic journalThe primary purpose of the Journal of Popular Film and Television is to provide a representative cross section of critical-cultural perspectives and to broaden the existing literature to include the “public visions” of popular filmmakers and television showrunners, economic and industrial factors, and an emphasis on the complex role of audiences in the development of film and television as art forms and wide-reaching socio-cultural forces.
Jump cut (OA)Call Number: Electronic journalJump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media is an Open Access journal run on a nonprofit basis by its staff and is not affiliated with or supported by any institution. It analyzes media in relation to class, race, and gender.
Film & television literature indexCall Number: Electronic resourceThis index covers over 300 journal and magazine titles for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest about film and television. About half the journals and magazines are film periodicals and the other half cover film and television with some regularity. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
Related subject guides
Many of the film studies resources mentioned elsewhere in this guide discuss aspects of film and society, but consider what other disciplinary perspectives address your topic and consult those guides as well.
Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.
You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.