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COM ARTS/ASIAN 443: Indian Cinema and Beyond (Fall 2023) : Find Films

Films

Books often provide background and comprehensive information about a topic.  To find books and more on your topic, search the Library Catalog

Searching the Library Catalog 

Refining Your Search Results 

Requesting a Library Item

Kanopy

Kanopy is an excellent database, but it is quite expensive, and does not offer the ability to own any films, so if you find something on there that we do not own, chances are that we will not be able to rent the item for single viewing. In addition, a number of Kanopy items may be subtitled, but they are not often closed captioned and do not offer visual description.

Online Film Collections

Search Terms for Films

There are certain searches that will produce more results than others:

Make sure that you are including a place, such as:

  • Asia, South Asia, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Dhaka, etc.

Or language:

  • Hindi, Tamil, Nepali, Tibetan, etc.

What are you interested within Film Studies:  

  • Motion Pictures, Mass Media, Motion Picture Industry, etc.

Types of film

  • Drama, Action, Horror, Romance

What is an underlying theme?

  • Gay, Lesbian, Abuse, Caste, Education, Child/Children, Dyslexia, Disability, Marriage, Arranged Marriage, etc.

Who is the director, the star, etc?

  • Satyajit Ray, Deepa Mehta, Aamir Khan, Shabana Azmi, etc.

 

For Films, there are some things to keep in mind:

  1. Although with books in foreign languages, films use the official name, which does not involve Romanization. For example, for the film, search "Taare Zameen Par" not "Tāre zamīna para."
  2. Make sure that you are limiting the catalog by formats after you search (or before, if you are using advanced search), this way you can limit results to film, audio, or even items available online, etc.