LibGuides: Streaming Video Resources: Documentary

University of Illinois Library Databases

American History in Video This link opens in a new window
At completion, American History in Video will include 2,000 total hours of streaming video content. More than half will be contemporaneous video from the 1890s to the 1980s. The early newsreels, including the complete series of United Newsreel and Universal Newsreel, available online in their entirety only in this collection, capture history as it was made and reported to viewers of the time ... American History in Video also includes hundreds of the documentaries most frequently used in history classrooms, from leading video content producers such as PBS, California Newsreel, Bullfrog Films, Documentary Educational Resources, Pennebaker Hegedus Films, The History Channel, and others.
Black Studies in Video This link opens in a new window
In partnership with California Newsreel, the oldest non-profit social issue documentary film center in the country, this collection includes cutting-edge racial justice and diversity films that inspire, educate and engage audiences. Additionally, Black Studies in Video features access to the SNCC Legacy Video Collection, a series of formal addresses, panel discussions and programs that took place at a conference and reunion unfolding over four days at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
Fashion Studies Online This link opens in a new window
This collection features content from the archives of Videofashion, a provider of fashion video footage. More than 80 percent of the films are exclusive and including nearly 40 years of worldwide fashion shows, designer profiles, and documentary segments. The collection includes series from the history of Videofashion, including Designer DNA, Elements of Style, Fashion Classics, Millennium Fashion, Model TV, and VideoFashion News.
Filmakers Library Online This link opens in a new window
The collection includes documentaries that are already heavily used in humanities and social science classrooms. Topical coverage is contemporary and relevant across the curriculum--race and gender studies, human rights, globalization and global studies, multiculturalism, international relations, criminal justice, the environment, bioethics, health, political science and current events, psychology, arts, literature, and more. The titles in Filmakers Library Online present points of view and historical and current experiences from diverse cultures and traditions world-wide.
Health and Society in Video This link opens in a new window
Health and Society in Video defines and explores today's latest medical progress in health and wellness issues and their impact on society. This resource includes documentaries, profiles, reports, and interviews
Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video service for educational institutions that provides students and faculty access to more than 26,000 films. Kanopy provides students access to one of the largest collections of films in the world – including award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases – on every topic imaginable.
Latin America in Video This link opens in a new window
Latin America in Video offers quality original language documentaries from some of the most important producers and independent filmmakers in Latin America. The films were produced in Latin America, by Latin Americans, about Latin American issues, such as cultural identity, political history, human rights, popular culture, agribusiness, education, religion, and much more.
LGBT Studies in Video This link opens in a new window
LGBT Studies in Video is a cinematic survey of the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as well as the cultural and political evolution of the LGBT community. It features award-winning documentaries, interviews, archival footage, and select feature films exploring LGBT history, gay culture and subcultures, civil rights, marriage equality, LGBT families, AIDS, transgender issues, religious perspectives on homosexuality, global comparative experiences, and other topics. A primary partner for this collection is Frameline, a nonprofit media organization that produces the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, the oldest film festival devoted to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender programming currently in existence.
March of Time This link opens in a new window
This resource includes an archive of The March of Time films. From 1935-1967, American theatergoers and television watchers were witness to Time Inc.'s unique and controversial film series. The March of Time series aired its first short subject film in theaters in the U.S. in 1935, and immediately turned heads among the media and ordinary citizens. These covered an eclectic range of topics, and took divergent and sometimes controversial perspectives that audiences hadn't seen before in this format.
Socialism on Film This link opens in a new window
This collection of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba. - See more at: http://www.socialismonfilm.amdigital.co.uk/#sthash.McOpse05.dpuf
World History in Video: English Language Documents This link opens in a new window
World history in video is an online collection of streaming video that gives users access to critically acclaimed documentaries from filmmakers worldwide. Upon completion the collection will include more than 1750 documentaries that offer a survey of human history from the earliest civilizations to the fall of the Berlin Wall. World history in video covers Africa and the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania.

Free Online Video Resources & Online Digital Collections

PBS American Experience Films
A collection of streaming documentaries examining the American experience.
Frontline
Frontline is a long-form news and current affairs investigative journalism series. More than 200 documentaries are available online for free.
Documentary Heaven
An online collection of documentaries in a variety of categories including, arts and artists, history, science, society, and technology.
Archive of American Television
Hosted by the Television Academy Foundation, this archive provides access to hundreds of in-depth video interviews with TV's greatest legends and pioneers. The collection is produced in the interest of preserving the history of television. It is intended as primary source material for future generations, to preserve the stories behind the making of television.
British National Archives Media Player
Collections of British National Archives digitized original video and audio content, including family history, military history, and social history.
The Great Depression Interviews
Originally debuting on PBS stations in 1993, the 7-part series was met with critical acclaim, winning an Emmy for writing and a duPont-Columbia Award. These interviews are part of the Henry Hampton Collection housed at the Film & Media Archive at Washington University Libraries. From the stock market crash of 1929 to the beginnings of World War II, The Great Depression tells the dramatic and diverse stories of struggle and survival during the worst economic crisis in U.S. history.
Digital Moving Image Collections: The American Memory Project
The American Memory project from the Library of Congress provides access to several hundred early motion pictures, organized into 11 collections: America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915 American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920 Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916 Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904 Last Days of a President: Films of McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906 Origins of American Animation Prosperity and Thrift: the Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929 Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film.
The Archeology Channel
A streaming media website brought to you by Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI). ALI is a nonprofit organization devoted to nurturing and bringing attention to the human cultural heritage, by using media in the most efficient and effective ways possible.
EVIA Digital Archive Project
The EVIA Digital Archive Project is a collaborative endeavor to create a digital archive of ethnographic field video for use by scholars and instructors. Funded since 2001 by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with significant contributions from Indiana University and the University of Michigan, the Project has been developed through the joint efforts of ethnographic scholars, archivists, librarians, technologists, and legal experts.

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University of Illinois Library Databases

Free Online Video Resources & Online Digital Collections

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