Film Studies Research Guide 

What's Here

This page addresses research into the relationships between filmmaking and the world beyond filmmaking (or of which filmmaking is only one instance), such as the relationship with specific social groups, ideas, and technologies.

• These issues overlap with other important topics, such as:
  • Themes, Subjects and Characters: what a film is about, how an issue is represented in movies, or what characters it revolves around (as distinct from who made the film).
  • Critical Approaches & Problems: ways of analyzing films and aspects of them.
    
  • Directors, Actors, Writers, etc.: individuals and social groups in the motion picture industry.
    
  • Filmmaking: the roles and activities of directing, producing, acting, filming, etc.

On this page you'll find:

• Examples of Subject Headings for Searching Orbis
• Selected Web Sites

Examples of Subject Headings for Searching Orbis

Aspects of Films and Filmmaking

• Motion pictures--Social aspects
• Motion pictures--Political aspects
• Motion pictures--Religious aspects
• Motion pictures--Psychological aspects
• Motion pictures--Moral and ethical aspects
• Motion pictures--Economic aspects

Relationship Between Filmmaking and Other Topics

• Motion pictures and women
• Feminism and motion pictures
• Feminist motion pictures
• Motion pictures and children
• Motion pictures and gay men
• Motion pictures and history
• Art and motion pictures
• Homosexuality and motion pictures [cf. the subjects Lesbians--Drama and Gay men--Drama]
  
• Journalism and motion pictures
• Motion pictures and literature
• National Socialism and motion pictures
• Painting and motion pictures
• Psychoanalysis and motion pictures
• Socialism and motion pictures
• Communism and motion pictures
• Fascism and motion pictures
• Motion pictures and television
• Motion pictures and the arts
• Motion pictures and theater
• Motion pictures and youth

What's the deal with "Homosexuality and motion pictures" (and similar subjects)? It's one of the most complex examples of how interrelated (and sometimes seemingly arbitrary) subject headings can be.

• "Homosexuality and motion pictures" encompasses the application of queer theory to films, as well as actors' off-camera personal lives, audiences, and so forth.
• "Lesbians--Drama" concerns fictional characters who are lesbian, but their sexuality may be incidental to the film's plot or theme.
• "Lesbians in motion pictures" and "Lesbianism in motion pictures" are themes, and these heading should be applied to critical analyses on that topic, not to fiction. (Why are there two headings? I have no idea!)

Complicated? Yup. Depending on what you're working on, you may need to search everything.