Subject Librarian
Dartmouth College
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Hanover, NH 03755
Internet resource(s)
- Caribbean Film Academy (CaFA)The CaFA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and support of Caribbean film-making and filmmakers, in the region and the diaspora.
- Caribbean Film Database (CFDb)The Caribbean Film Database (CFDb) is the largest single source of information on films produced in and about the Caribbean, defined as the insular Caribbean plus Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.
- Conch Shell International Film Festival (CSIFF)This film festival celebrates the cinemas of Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora filmmakers.
- KarukeramentKarukerament began as a podcast about the representation of the Caribbean in cinema and television. The original French version was launched in January 2019. The podcast highlights one film at a time to discuss Caribbean culture and the challenges coming with the representation of this region. In September 2019, the English version of the podcast was launched. The website karukerament.com is an extension of the podcast to share more reviews and Caribbean-related cultural content such as music. ...
Searching the online catalog
You can use the subject headings below to find resources on Caribbean cinema in the online catalog. Some call number ranges are also included. You can do a specific subject search for countries in the Caribbean by using the same format, "motion pictures [insert name of country]."
Please note: these are not the only call numbers, but they have the majority of items. These searches will also lead you to movie titles.
"The Caribbean: Political Map." World Geography and Culture Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 31 Mar. 2017
The Caribbean comprises disparate nations and linguistic and ethnic cultures, but with the exception of the Hispanic Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela) most countries in the region had no domestic film industries during the twentieth century, serving rather as foreign markets for films made in the West, or as exotic locations for such foreign-made films as the Rita Hayworth vehicles Affair in Trinidad (Vincent Sherman, US, 1952) and Fire Down Below (Robert Parrish, UK/US, 1957). Other films shot in the Caribbean include Howard Hawks’s To Have and Have Not (US, 1944), made in the French Antilles; the Bond film Dr No (Terence Young, UK/US, 1962), shot in Jamaica; and The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, US, 1999), its ending shot in the US Virgin Islands. The dominance of Hollywood films has made it especially difficult for countries in the English-speaking Caribbean to develop film industries of their own, and little filmmaking by non-Hispanic Caribbean filmmakers took place anywhere in the region before the 1970s, among the most celebrated of the exceptions being Perry Henzell’s The Harder They Come (Jamaica, 1972) (see Jamaica, film in). In some parts of the region, ventures into filmmaking have gone hand-in-hand with anti-colonial and nationalist movements as part of the broader objective of fostering a distinctively Caribbean culture and consciousness. In Haiti, for example, Rassoul Labuchin explored the history of Caribbean slavery in Anita (1969), and Raoul Peck looked to roots in French-speaking Africa for the theme of his Lumumba (France/Belgium/Germany/Haiti, 2000). ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Caribbean, film in the. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 15 Aug. 2022
- motion pictures caribbean areaCall number range PN 1993.5 .C24 on Baker Stack Level 4
- motion pictures puerto ricoCall number range PN 1993.5 .P9 on Baker Stack Level 4
- motion pictures dominican republicCall number range PN 1993.5 .D65 on Baker Stack Level 4
Selected book title(s)
- Cinelibre: historia desconocida y manifiesto por un cine puertorriqueño independiente y libre byCall Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .P9 R36 2008
Defiant itineraries: Caribbean paradigms in American dance and film by Call Number: Baker-Berry GV 1779 .P53 2015ISBN: 9781137475534How did Caribbean rituals helped form new currents in the performing and visual arts of the United States? This book answers this question through an examination of the Caribbean-inspired dance creations of dancer/choreographer Katherine Dunham and the experimental films of avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren.
Early Puerto Rican cinema and nation building: national sentiments, transnational realities, 1897-1940 by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781684481170Early Puerto Rican Cinema and Nation Building focuses on the processes of Puerto Rican national identity formation as seen through the historical development of cinema on the island between 1897 and 1940. Anchoring her work in archival sources in film technology, economy, and education, Naida García-Crespo argues that Puerto Rico's position as a stateless nation allows for a fresh understanding of national cinema based on perceptions of productive cultural contributions rather than on citizenship or state structures. ...- Encuadre de una identidad audiovisual: evolución y perspectivas en República Dominicana byCall Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .D65 L67 2007ISBN: 9789945853933
Jamaica's difficult subjects: negotiating sovereignty in Anglophone Caribbean literature and criticism by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780814212639Recognizing that in the contemporary postcolonial moment, national identity and cultural nationalism are no longer the primary modes of imagining sovereignty, Sheri-Marie Harrison argues that postcolonial critics must move beyond an identity-based orthodoxy as they examine problems of sovereignty. In Jamaica's Difficult Subjects: Negotiating Sovereignty in Anglophone Caribbean Literature and Criticism, Harrison describes what she calls "difficult subjects"--subjects that disrupt essentialized notions of identity as equivalent to sovereignty. She argues that these subjects function as a call for postcolonial critics to broaden their critical horizons beyond the usual questions of national identity and exclusion/inclusion. ...- Una mirada al cine del Caribe byCall Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .C24 M58 2012ISBN: 9789592672901
Other library resource(s)
Mayan Deren from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceMaya Deren (b. 1917–d. 1961) completed only six films and two monographs in her lifetime, yet she made a huge impact on the history of cinema and the avant-garde specifically. Indeed, she continues to inspire a wide range of artists, from filmmakers to visual artists and musicians. Although she had established a name for herself from a young age as a leader in the Young People’s Socialist League, as well as having published as a journalist and a poet, and earning a master’s degree from Smith College, Deren is best known for her first short film: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943).
Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)
Although our collection does not include a journal title that looks exclusively at Caribbean cinema, you can use Film & Television Literature Index to find articles or use the search box at the top of the page.
Film & television literature index by Call Number: Electronic resourceUse this index to find articles about Caribbean cinema.
HAPI online by Call Number: Electronic resourceHAPI is a source for worldwide information about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States, with coverage from 1970 to the present.
Screen studies collection by Call Number: Electronic resourceA comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed filmographies. This collection includes the FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute (AFI) and the British Film Institute.
The web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Selected movie titles
- ArtMattan Films byCall Number: Jones Media - check the catalog for specific titlesThese are films that focus on the human experience of black people in Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America and Europe on DVD and videotape.
- Emperor Jones from Paul Robeson: portraits of the artist byCall Number: Jones Media DVD #14649ISBN: 9781934121191An ambitious Black man deposes the ruler of a Caribbean island and declares himself emperor.
Jean Gentil by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19587A Haitian man who recently lost his job as a French teacher, begins a desperate search for work in Santo Domingo.
Maluala by Call Number: Streaming videoIn 19th century Cuba, African slaves known as Cimarrons overpower their Spanish masters and hide in settlements in the eastern mountains. But discord among the Cimarrons is sown by traitors working secretly for the Spanish.
Negocios $on negocios by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #6800A simple man, silly but good hearted, is mistaken for the new manager of a big and important bank. When that happens, his life begins to change. He is surrounded by power, luxury, compliments, beautiful women, and trouble with the police.
Keeping up with the journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for a national or regional cinema? 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.
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 now 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.