RUS 91 Film and Nation: Russia & Central Asia
Professor Vida Johnson, Fall 2008

Library Research Sources & Strategies
Prepared by Chao Chen, Reference Librarian at Tisch Library

Understanding Movies   ·  Films and Filmmakers  ·   Books  ·Journal Articles · Movie Reviews vs Film Criticism

Writing about Film   ·  How to Cite  ·  RefWorks  ·  Renew Books  ·  Interlibrary Loan Request ·   Course Reserves

Cinema Studies: the Key Concepts. (PN1993.45 .H36 2006)
       This is a dictionary format to key theoretical terms, genres, film theory and film history. It includes an extensive bibliography.

Becoming film literate: the art and craft of motion pictures. (PN1994 .L595 2005)

Film theory and criticism: introductory readings, 6th ed. (PN1994 .M364 2004)

Understanding movies, 9th ed. ( PN1994 .G47 2002)

Critical dictionary of film and television theory. (Ref: PN1993.45 .C75 2001)

How to read a film: the world of movies, media, and multimedia: language, history, theory; 3rd ed. (PN1994 .M59 2000)

The Oxford guide to film studies. (Ref. PN1995 .O93 1998)
     Short essays on aspects of film (such as the text, acting, music), critical approaches (e.g., semiotics, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, feminism), and history (American, European, world).

Film theory goes to the movies. (PN1994 .F43915 1993)

Film study: an analytical bibliography.
     A comprehensive four-volume survey of cinema "through a study of representative genres, stereotypes, themes, comparative media, periods, and film history". (Ref. PN1994.Z99 M34 1990)

Handbook of Soviet and East European films and filmmakers. [Ref. PN1993.5.R9 H28 1992]

The Oxford history of world cinema. (PN1993.5.A1 O96 1996)

The new biographical dictionary of film. PN1998.2 .T49 2002

International dictionary of films and filmmakers. [Ref. PN1997.8 .I58 2000]
A four-volume work of critical essays covering Films, Directors, Actors and Actresses and Writers and Production Artists. For films, the specialist's essay is preceded by production information, list of crew and cast and selected bibliography of works. Illustrated with many still photos.

The film encyclopedia. [Ref. PN1993.45 .K34 1994]
Articles on film history and filmmaking in individual countries. Numerous biographies and complete filmographies for directors and major stars.

The BFI companion to Eastern European and Russian cinema. [Book stacks: PN1993.5.E2 B44 2000]

Tufts Library Catalog http://library.tufts.edu/

Try also browse by the subject, motion pictures soviet union

• nation** searches for nation, national, nationhood, and all other variations.
• (russia* or soviet) searches for either or both of the two words.
• books/journals limits the search results to text materials only.

1. Film Criticism in Scholarly Journals:
Principal Databases
Film Literature Index   (FLI) 1976-2001) Search Tip
The most comprehensive index to the periodical literature of film – from scholarly, trade, literary, and news sources. 
The years of 2002-2004 of this index are at Ref. [HUM] Z5784.M9 F45.

Film & Television Literature Index
cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 300 publications, and selected coverage of 300 more. The database has been designed for use by a diverse audience that includes film scholars, college students, and general viewers.

Slavic and East European Studies
American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies    1939  present
Provides information on East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. Sources indexed include journals, books, dissertations, online resources and selected government publications published in the U.S. and Canada.

Multidisciplinary E-journal Collections and Database(s)
Project Muse and JSTOR    
JStor Tips and Project Muse Tips
These are two digital collections of core journals in many disciplines. While Project Muse offers more recent issues, JSTOR has more earlier issues.

Expanded Academic ASAP 

Finding the full texts of journal articles

2. Movie Reviews in Trade journals, Popular Magazines, and Newspapers:
Expanded Academic ASAP   Search Tip
For movie reviews in magazines such as Time, Newsweek, The Nation, and the trade publication Variety, as well as film criticism in scholarly journals.
Note: Variety is indexed from 1980 on with full text starting 1997. Tisch also holds this indispensable trade journal from 1990 to the present at Current Periodicals and Microforms [Tisch Micro R348].

International Index to the Performing Arts       Search Tip
Note: The coverage of this database is not always very up to date. Some journals are two years behind the current time.

Lexis-Nexis    Search Tip
For movie reviews in regional, national, and international newspapers.

New York Times Historical Archive, 1851-three years before current date
Find movie reviews in New York times in the earlier years that are not covered in Lexis-Nexis.