Subject Guides: Art & Art History: Film & Video

DVD Collection

We have a large browsing collection of DVDs on the first floor, including art documentaries and biopics. We also loan portable DVD and Blu-Ray players at the Circulation Desk.

Film Resources

MDOCS DocLab
(Library, Room 113)
DocLab offers a Mac Pro computer lab, sound recording booth, and more.
Media Viewing Room
(Library, Room 129)
Students can reserve this room to screen films up to 24 hours in advance using the touchscreen next to the room.

Streaming Video Databases

Art & Architecture in Video
Offers documentaries and interviews illustrating the theory and practice of a variety of art forms.

Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Brings together on a single cross-searchable platform an integrated online repository of Alexander Street Press video titles. Includes newsreels, documentaries, interviews, lectures, training videos, and more.
Docuseek This link opens in a new window
Docuseek streams essential independent, social-issue and environmental films, providing exclusive access to content from renowned leaders in documentary film distribution.

Filmakers Library Online
Provides award-winning documentaries. It presents points of view and historical and current experiences from diverse cultures and traditions.

HistoryMakers This link opens in a new window
Access interviews, biographies, videos, archival photography, and more for over 3,300 African Americans known and unknown.
Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Find movies, documentaries, foreign films, classic cinema, independent films and educational videos.
OntheBoards.tv This link opens in a new window
Offers videos of full-length performances by some of today's most provocative artists working in dance, theater, music and other forms that defy categorization.
Swank Digital Campus This link opens in a new window
Provides over 30,000 films, documentaries and TV shows.

Art Video Websites

AHA! A House for Arts (PBS)
Features the stories of artists, makers, and creative institutions.
Art21
Films on contemporary art and artists—including the series, "Art in the Twenty-First Century".
Open Arts Objects
An open access platform which provides free films to support the teaching of Art History.
UbuWeb
Offers over 2500 full-length avant-garde films and videos, both streaming and downloadable.
VDB (Video Data Bank) TV
Provides free streaming access to curated programs of video and media art. VDB TV includes work from early video pioneers active in the 1960s and 70s, through to emerging contemporary artists.

Lucy Scribner Library

Art & Art History: Film & Video

Finding Films

To find films, you can search the library catalog by title for a specific film/documentary or by topic. If searching by either, select "Videos" under Source Type on the results list. You can also search in our streaming video databases.