Oxford Bibliographies Online for American cinema
Find more annotated lists on American film in Cinema and Media Studies from Oxford Bibliographies Online.
African American cinema from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286The category “African American Cinema” presents important conceptual challenges for scholars, critics, and moviegoers. Before laying out those challenges, though, it is important to note that African American cinema is often thought of as part of American cinema, while at the same time, African American cinema is also often thought of as part of a global black diasporic cinema.- American cinema, 1895 - 1915 from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286The study of early American cinema was both the beneficiary and the instigator of a wave of revisionist historiography that gained momentum from the mid-1970s onward. While previous accounts of American cinema prior to the advent of features had concentrated on those artistic achievements that led “inevitably” to the mature work of the Hollywood studio system, isolating the contributions of Porter, Ince, and Griffith, the first wave of revisionist efforts, ushered in largely by the findings of scholars still in graduate school, redefined the early cinema landscape.
- American cinema, 1939-1975 from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286From 1939, when World War II started in Europe, to 1975, when the mega-success of the blockbuster Jaws put an end to what we might call the American “New Wave,” the US film industry traveled through precipitous peaks and valleys. During the war years Hollywood joined the fight: cooperating with government, raising morale, and selling war bonds.
- American cinema, 1976 to present from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286American cinema has undergone a series of profound transitions since 1976. In many histories of American film, 1976 marks the end of one New Hollywood—the so-called “Hollywood Renaissance” of art cinema-inspired, personal filmmaking driven by young auteurs—and the start of another New Hollywood, this one more oriented toward blockbuster films that, many critics argue, eschew classical principles of narration in order to foreground special effects sequences and to provide opportunities for merchandizing and other product tie-ins.
- Asian American cinema from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286Asian American cinema refers to an ongoing struggle for moving image representation by and about Asian Americans in the United States. The civil rights and Third World movements having established a group identity that now included previously disparate groups, the Asian American cinema movement identified a systematic social problem: the invisibility and misrepresentation of Asian Americans in mainstream industry representations, that is, their absence on screen signified a lack of power in shaping US politics and history. ...
- Latina/o Americans in film and television from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286Latino Americans, also termed Hispanics, as individuals with ancestry in the US Southwest, Mexico, Puerto Rico, or Latin American countries, are widely diverse, even while their cinematic and televisual representations have often flattened differences in their construction of an imagined, universal Latin-ness, or Latinidad. This representational history has its roots in social history and particularly the historical oppression of Mexican Americans. Mexican Americans also historically have been the largest US Latino group.
- Native Americans from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286What role have fictionalized American “Indians”—and real, living, breathing Native Americans—played in America’s story about itself? Bataille 2001 (cited under Early, Colonial, and Exhibition Images of American Indians) notes that Native Americans have been mythologized by anthropologists, the tourist industry, and popular culture, which have created the “Indian that never was.”
Digitalia film library. North American classic cinemaCall Number: Streaming videoBesides cinema from around the world, this library also contains a collection of classic North American films.
An introduction to American cinema
Prolific inventor and innovator Thomas Edison (with his assistant, W.K.L. Kennedy) patented the Kinetograph and Kinetoscope (a film camera and peepshow viewing device) in 1891, with the first Kinetoscope parlour opening in New York in 1894 (see early cinema). Between 1893 and 1895, the Edison Manufacturing Company produced hundreds of short films in the world's first film studio, nicknamed the ‘Black Maria’; mainly single-shot setups of vaudeville acts, dancers, and gymnasts, as well as sporting scenes and vignettes of everyday life. Inspired by the Lumière brothers' success in France, Edison leased the rights to the Vitascope film projector, and on 23 April 1896 conducted the first public film screening in the USA. Cinema was immediately successful, thriving firstly within vaudeville theatres and from 1905 prompting the construction of dedicated cinema spaces, or nickelodeons (see cinema of attractions). Edwin S. Porter's Life of an American Fireman (1902) and The Great Train Robbery (1903) are considered significant films in pioneering techniques of narrative and continuity editing.
Kuhn, A. & Westwell, G. (2012). "Film in the USA." In A Dictionary of Film Studies. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 Jan. 2017.
In the Library's collection
You can use the subject heading below to find resources in the online catalog. The call number range is also included. To find more books on any of the subjects, search WorldCat.
- motion pictures united statesYou can browse the call number range PN 1993.5 .U6 through PN 1995.9 .U64 on Baker Stack Level 4.
- motion pictures, americanThis subject heading is for films produced by American companies and shown outside the United States.
- comedy films united statesThe call number range for Comedies is PN 1995.9 .C55 on Baker Level 4.
- motion pictures californiaYou can search the online catalog for other states to see if they are represented.
Introductory reading(s)
The big screen: the story of the movies by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .U6 T463 2012ISBN: 9780374191894... The Big Screen is not another history of the movies. Rather, it is a wide-ranging narrative about the movies and their signal role in modern life. At first, film was a waking dream, the gift of appearance delivered for a nickel to huddled masses sitting in the dark. But soon, and abruptly, movies began transforming our societies and our perceptions of the world. ...
Directory of world cinema. American Hollywood by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781841504155With its sprawling celebrity homes, the Walk of Fame, and the iconic sign on the hill, Hollywood is truly the land of stars. Glamorous and larger than life, many of the most memorable motion pictures of all time have emanated from its multi-million dollar film industry, which exports more films per capita than that of any other nation. Directory of World Cinema: American Hollywood lays out the cinematic history of Tinseltown; the industry, the audiences, and, of course, the stars ...
Directory of world cinema. American Hollywood 2 by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781783200061Hollywood continues to reign supreme; from award-winning dramas to multimillion-dollar, special-effects-laden blockbusters, Tinseltown produces the films that audiences around the world go to the cinema to see. While the film industry has dramatically changed over the years--stars have come and gone, studios have risen and fallen, new technologies have emerged to challenge directors and entice audiences--Hollywood remains the center of global media entertainment.
Fifty key American films by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780415772976This text looks at 50 of the best American films ever made, with case studies from the 1930's hey day of cinema right up to the present day.
The Wiley-Blackwell history of American film by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781405179843The Wiley-Blackwell History of American Film provides a chronological portrait of American film history from its origins to the present day. Taken as a whole, the essays in this collection represent a comprehensive and nuanced overview of American film history from the intersecting perspectives of industry, audiences, aesthetics, culture, politics, issues, and ideology. ...
Selected book titles
Find more resources on American film in the library's collections.
Cinematic geographies and multicultural spectatorship in America by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .L29 C68 2015ISBN: 9781137482662Exploration, intertwined with home-seeking, has always defined America. Geographic variation and a mobile populace have meant that America is always searching for a home, yet in love with travel. Here, Corbin argues that a wide swath of films about significant cultural landscapes in America evoke a sense of travel for their viewers, just by going to the movie theatre. She considers the dialectic between the thrill of seeing an "other" place and the security of being in a "familiar" place.
The cool and the crazy: pop fifties cinema by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780813572987Explosive! Amazing! Terrifying! You won't believe your eyes! Such movie taglines were common in the 1950s, as Hollywood churned out a variety of low-budget pictures that were sold on the basis of their sensational content and topicality. While a few of these movies have since become canonized by film fans and critics, a number of the era's biggest fads have now faded into obscurity.
Generation multiplex: the image of youth in American cinema since 1980 by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .Y6 S53 2014ISBN: 9780292756625Generation Multiplex was the first comprehensive study of the representation of teenagers in American cinema since David Considine's Cinema of Adolescence in 1985. This updated and expanded edition reaffirms the idea that films about youth constitute a legitimate genre worthy of study on its own terms.
Hollywood vault: film libraries before home video by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.9 .D57 H69 2014ISBN: 9780520282643Hollywood Vault is the story of how the business of film libraries emerged and evolved, spanning the silent era to the sale of feature libraries to television. Eric Hoyt argues that film libraries became valuable not because of the introduction of new technologies but because of the emergence and growth of new markets, and suggests that studying the history of film libraries leads to insights about their role in the contemporary digital marketplace.
A special relationship: Britain comes to Hollywood and Hollywood comes to Britain by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781628460872A Special Relationship provides not only a historical overview of the British in Hollywood, but also a detailed study of the contributions made by American individuals and companies to British cinema from the beginning of the twentieth century onward.
Other library resource(s)
AFI CatalogCall Number: Electronic resourceThe Catalog covers the history of American cinema from 1893 to the present with full or short records. Every feature-length film produced in America or financed by American production companies is indexed here.
Film scripts online by Call Number: Electronic resourceFilm Scripts Online is an ongoing collection of feature films, when completed, will hold 1,000 scripts and over 100,000 scenes. Many of the scripts have never been published. The database is full-text searchable and includes detailed indexing on scenes, characters, and people. Supplemental information includes short biographies on the writers and awards given to individual films have been noted.
American mid-century collection by Call Number: Streaming videoA collection of films from American Mid-Century from the Criterion Collection.
Media history digital library by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe Media History Digital Library digitizes collections of classic media periodicals that belong in the public domain for full public access. The project is supported by owners of materials who loan them for scanning, and donors who contribute funds to cover the cost of scanning.
The Collection feature extensive runs of several important trade papers and fan magazines.
Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)
Articles and other writings about American cinema can be found in many publications. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find articles or the search box at the top of the page.
The Velvet Light TrapCall Number: Electronic journalThe Velvet Light Trap (VLT) is a journal devoted to investigating historical questions that illuminate the understanding of film and other media. While VLT maintains its traditional commitment to the study of American film, it also expands its scope to television and other media, to adjacent institutions, and to other nations' media.
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.
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
For a select list of feature films made in the United States, click here. The list below is just a selection of the entire collection in Jones Media Center.
Anomalisa by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19903Michael Stone, husband, father and noted author, travels to Cincinnati to speak at a customer service conference. But once he's separated from the routine of his daily life, a chance encounter helps him to realize just what, and whom, he's been missing.
The big red one by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #1703ISBN: 9780790798905Named for the insignia of the First Infantry Division, this World War II combat film follows a handful of young GIs and their sergeant as they battle their way from North Africa through Sicily, Omaha Beach and Belgium to the ultimate horror of the concentration camp at Falkenau, Czechoslovakia.
The big short by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19633The financial meltdown from the perspective of a number of players: Michael Burry, a bizarre autistic-like stock-picking genius, and the first to realize that the market's housing boom is based on a "house of cards" sham; Mark Baum, self-loathing fictional character whose firm picks up insider trading information from a wrong number phone call; Jared Vennet, a smart-aleck broker who confirms the ominous suspicion; and Charlie Gellar and Jamie Shipley, small-time players who hit it big.
The Black Panthers: vanguard of the revolution by Call Number: Streaming videoISBN: 9781627895453This is the first feature length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.
The internet's own boy: story of Aaron Swartz by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #18445Aaron Swartz was a programming prodigy who helped shape the digital landscape of today. He helped develop the internet protocol RSS and was a co-founder of Reddit. Chronicling his pioneering efforts crusading for open access and free speech and the resulting legal nightmare and tragedy that ensued, the documentary is a dynamic and moving portrait of a brilliant tech millionaire who renounced the values of Silicon Valley startup culture and used technology to tirelessly fight for social justice.
Mean streets by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #4436ISBN: 9780790758398Charlie, a 27-year-old, tries to work his way up the bottom rungs of organized crime's ladder. Amy Robinson is Teresa, the girlfriend Charlie's family declares "unsuitable" because she has epilepsy.
A poem is a naked person by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19994ISBN: 9781681431185Filmmaker Les Blank considered this free-form feature documentary about singer-songwriter Leon Russell, filmed between 1972 and 1974 while Blank was living at the Russell/Shelter Records recording studio compound on Grand Lake of the Cherokees in NE Oklahoma, but unreleased due to creative differences and music clearance problems, to be one of his greatest accomplishments. Includes scenes of Russell and his band and others performing, both in concert and in the studio.
Street smart by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #8119ISBN: 9780792858515A floundering magazine writer concocts a fictitious story, whose make-believe criminal bears an uncanny resemblance to a real-life murderer.
These amazing shadows by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #14922ISBN: 9781608835737Tells the history and importance of the National Film Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and the American experience itself.
White like me by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #16844ISBN: 9781932869804Based on the work of Tim Wise, the film explores race and racism in the United States through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we've entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with this legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today.
Winter in the blood by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19198Virgil First Raise wakes in a ditch on the hardscrabble plains of Montana. He stumbles home to his ranch on the reservation only to learn that his wife, Agnes, has left him. Worse, she's stolen his beloved rifle. Virgil sets out to find her, beginning an odyssey of inebriated intrigues with a mysterious "Airplane Man," a beautiful barmaid, and two dangerous Men in Suits. His quixotic, modern-day vision quest moves Virgil ever closer to oblivion until he discovers a long-hidden truth about his identity. But is it too late?
Internet resource(s)
- American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute (AFI) promises to preserve the heritage of the motion picture, to honor the artists and their work and to educate the next generation of storytellers.
- Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is a labor organization that represents the creative and economic rights of directors and members of the directorial team working in film, television, commercials, documentaries, news, sports and new media. - Motion Picture Association of America
They aspire to advance the business and the art of film-making and celebrate its enjoyment around the world. - National Film Preservation Board
The National Film Preservation Board works to ensure the survival, conservation and increased public availability of America's film heritage, including: advising the Librarian on its recommendations for annual selections to the National Film Registry, apprising the Librarian of changing trends and policies in the field of film preservation, and counseling the Librarian on ongoing implementation of the National Film Preservation Plan. - Producers Guild of America
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is the non-profit trade group that represents, protects and promotes the interests of all members of the producing team in film, television and new media. - University Film & Video Association (UFVA)
The UFVA is an organization of professors, scholars, and film and video makers. - Writers Guild of America, EastThe Writers Guild of America, East, (WGAE) is a labor union of thousands of professionals who are the primary creators of what is seen or heard on television and film in the U.S., as well as the writers of a growing portion of original digital media content. They have a whole section of "Resources" for screenwriters.
- Writers Guild of America, WestThe official site of the union representing writers in the motion picture, broadcast, cable and new media industries. They have a whole section of "Writer's Resources" for screenwriters.
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.