Word on the Street

Try our new video products free for the month of April!

There's a lot in store for Alexander Street video this year: we'll be growing to 10,000 titles, adding a new cross-discipline video platform, and offering individual streaming titles.

Kicking things off, we've just released three new collections: Filmakers Library Online; Education in Video; and Counseling and Therapy in Video: Volume II. You can access all three of these and explore them for yourself until April 30. Register here to get started!

For more information about Alexander Street video, or to request extended trial access, email [email protected].

We've joined forces with Filmakers Library!

Filmakers Library has been bringing high-quality, issue-based documentaries to the education market for more than forty years. Some of its award-winning titles include Original Intent: The Battle for America; Who Killed Vincent Chin?; Prison Lullabies; The Danish Solution: The Rescue of the Jews in Denmark; and Muslims in Love. And earlier this month, we made an exciting announcement: Alexander Street has acquired Filmakers Library.

A little later this year, we'll be bringing you their entire library as a subscription-based streaming video database called Filmakers Library Online, and making it possible for libraries to order and instantly stream individual Filmakers Library films.

For more information, check out the full press release here.

The March on Washington

This Saturday marks the 47th anniversary of The March on Washington and Martin Luther King's legendary "I Have A Dream" speech. The March was organized to put pressure on Congress to pass civil rights legislation.

Below is newsreel coverage of The March on Washington from Universal Newsreels. Subscribers to American History in Video can find the video, along with its synchronized, scrolling transcript, here.

American History in Video continues to grow to 2,000 hours of important documentaries, newsreels, public affairs videos, and archival footage. For more information, and to request a free trial and price quote for your library, please email [email protected].

Ethnographic Video Online continues to grow

Since launching in February of 2010, Ethnographic Video Online has grown by more than 100 titles by important filmmakers like David MacDougal, David Plath, John Bishop, and Timothy Asch. This popular online collection now features over 400 titles equaling 270 hours of video, and is continuing to grow.

The recently added films include span from 1968 up to the present day, and cover every corner of the world, from Switzerland to Niger, Argentina to Newfoundland, Japan to Kenya, Belize to Zanzibar, Papua New Guinea to Portugal. Titles include Harambee (1974), Ajishama, The White Ibis (2003), Being Innu (2007), The Last Window (1987), Tarahumara: Festival of the Easter Moon (1976), Taking Pictures (2001), and Friends, Fools, Family: Rouch’s Collaborators in Niger (1992).  Also included now are the early films of Robert Flaherty, Nanook of the North (1922) and Louisiana Story (1948), and our first previously unreleased film, Urban Garden (2006), by Jay Sokolovsky.

For a detailed list on newly added films, visit Ethnographic Video Online's What's New page. You can also follow our anthropology editor on Twitter @EthnoVideo.

Ethnographic Video Online is available to libraries and academic institutions worldwide. To request a free trial or price quote, email [email protected].

Sneak peek access to Ethnographic Video Online

Just launched, it's Alexander Street's newest streaming video collection—Ethnographic Video Online.

Quickly growing to include more than 1,000 of the most frequently used films in anthropology courses, Ethnographic Video Online includes classic works from the pioneers of ethnographic film, including Robert Flaherty, Timothy Asch, John Marshall, Robert Gardner, Jean Rouch, and many more—together with contemporary works by innovative filmmakers from around the world.

Access it now, registration-free, through Friday, March 12th.
 
URL: http://anth.alexanderstreet.com
 
username: ethnography
 
password: sneakpeek

A comprehensive online resource for the visual study of human culture and behavior and the largest, most affordable streaming video collection of its kind, Ethnographic Video Online will contain more than 750 hours of classic and contemporary documentaries produced by leading video producers in the discipline; previously unpublished footage from working anthropologists and ethnographers in the field; and select feature films. Wherever possible, videos include accompanying field notes, liner notes, filmmaker biographies, related articles, study guides, and other context-enhancing, full-text materials. Publishing partners include the leading video content providers in the discipline, including Documentary Educational Resources (DER).

Learn more about Ethnographic Video Online here.
 
Request a price quote or an institution-wide trial by emailing [email protected].

Today in History: 1930

We're opening access to American History in Video through April 30, 2009 at http://ahivfree.alexanderstreet.com. Through our blog series, Today in History, we'll feature video clips related to historical events occurring on today's date.

For pricing information and institution-wide trial access after the open access period, please email [email protected].

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On this day in 1930, the Production Code was adopted by the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (later renamed the Motion Pictures Association of America). The Code set strict guidelines as to what content was morally acceptable in motion pictures, and was the MPPDA's attempt to avoid government censorship of films. The Production Code was abandoned in 1968 for the current MPAA rating system.

Experience history as never before with American History in Video. Click the image below to view newsreel footage of MPAA spokesman Eric Johnston in streaming video.

American Film Scripts is Complete

The latest, and final release of American Film Scripts is live. The completed collection now contains 1,009 scripts by 1,062 writers together with Semantically Indexed information on the scenes, characters, and people related to the scripts. More than half of the scripts in the collection are previously unpublished, and most are accompanied by PDF versions of the original script.

In addition to the 186 new screenplays added in this final release, American Film Scripts has a new look and feel. Head over to http://afso.alexanderstreet.com to take a look at the new interface and software enhancements. We've improved the search engine for better performance, introduced new toolbar navigation for easier browsing, added a collocation table option on the advanced searches, and kept all other functionality the same.

Subscribers will notice that the old platform will remain active until May 1, 2009, but we encourage you to get acquainted with the new interface. After that time, any bookmarks or links into any page of the collection will automatically redirect to the correct pages on the new platform.

Newly added scripts include:

• Journey Into Fear, uncredited direction by Orson Welles (1943); screenplay by Joseph Cotton.
• The Set Up, directed by Robert Wise (1949); won special jury prize at Cannes that year.
• Suspicion, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1939); Academy Award for Best Actress for Joan Fontaine.
• The Claim, unproduced film treatment written by James Dickey.
• Back to Bataan, directed by Edward Dmytryk; featured John Wayne and Anthony Quinn.
• Edge of Darkness, directed by Lewis Milestone; screenplay by Robert Rossen.
• In This Our Life, directed by John Huston; screenplay by Howard Koch.
• 42nd Street, directed by Lloyd Bacon (1933); chosen for National Film Registry.
• The Fountainhead, directed by King Vidor (1949); screenplay by Ayn Rand.
• Confessions of a Nazi Spy, directed by Anatole Litvak (1939) National Board of Review award for Best Film that year.
• The Woman on the Beach, directed by Jean Renoir (1947); featured Joan Bennett and Robert Ryan.
• Now, Voyager, directed by Irving Rapper (1942); National Film Registry selection.
• Far North and Silent Tongue, two screenplays written by Sam Shepard.
• Multiple scripts from films directed by: William Wellman, Michael Curtiz, Busby Berkeley, Howard Hawks, Vincent Sherman, Raoul Walsh, Curtis Bernhardt, and others.

American Film Scripts is available on the Web through annual subscription or one-time purchase of perpetual rights. For more information, including pricing and trial options, please contact [email protected] or your sales representative.