Streaming
Searching Franklin for Film
A select, limited number of films are available to stream. Search a film title in Franklin. Under Access, choose Online to see streaming films. Choose At the Library for DVDs and physical media. Portable all-region players and external DVD drives are available to check out from the Vitale Digital Media Lab (link: Equipment Lending). We prioritize course-related streaming film requests from instructors because of the cost of streaming licenses for films.
Streaming Collections
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Academic Video Online (AVON)Large, wide-ranging collection of feature film, documentaries, news footage, historical newsreels, and a range of primary source content. Includes film from the Criterion Collection, PBS, BBC, and Academy, Emmy, Peabody award winners, as well as silent films, serials, and early cinema shorts, including Buster Keaton, Fritz Lang, Chaplin, Murnau, and Lubitsch.
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Film Platform"Film Platform... showcases meaningful documentaries of social, political and cultural importance by some of the world's top international filmmakers. Its growing catalog combines in-depth stories with out-of-the-box storytelling on a broad range of topics, sometimes accompanied by a selection of study guides, press kits, and interviews with filmmakers and subjects." -- from resource overview
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Independent World Cinema: Classic and Contemporary FilmThis is a collection from indie film distributors—Milestone, Zeitgeist, Pragda, and Oscilloscope. These films support disciplines such as cultural history, psychology, gender studies, anthropology, African-American studies, and more.
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KanopyStreaming collection of films and documentaries covering many subjects: pop culture, social policy, politics, education, and gender studies.
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Kanopy (via Free Library of Philadelphia)Available to Philadelphia residents with a Free Library card only. On-demand video streaming, including selected content not available via Penn Libraries. Cardholders have access to up to 4 streaming movies each month.
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Swank Digital CampusSelected streaming full-length feature films and documentaries.
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Swank Digital Campus Resident Select (via Penn Video Network)Selected streaming full-length feature films, licensed for on-campus viewing only. Line-up changes monthly, and films do not appear in Franklin, Penn Libraries Catalog. Note: After a brief licensing redirect, you will see movie choices. You can only use Resident Select while you're on Penn's campus, using a Penn IP address.
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New World Cinema: Independent Features & Shorts, 1990-PresentFull-length feature films and award-winning shorts from leading independent distributors.
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Russian Film HubRussian and Soviet movies with English subtitles. Users can filter by genre, decade, director, and more. Created by Penn alumnus Richard Wess C'16.
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Hoopla (via Free Library of Philadelphia)Available to Philadelphia residents with a Free Library card only. On-demand streaming movies and TV, plus e-books, audiobooks, the Great Courses, and more. Cardholders have access to up to 4 streaming choices each month.
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Ethnographic Video OnlineClassic ethnographic films, films about cultural change over time, and films made by and for indigenous communities. Browse by geography or cultural groups. Some films include study guides.
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Artfilms-DigitalArtfilms-Digital is the video streaming service of Contemporary Arts Media, Australia, including works for arts education and artists that are relevant to the performing arts, music, electronic media, visual arts, photography, fashion, philosophy, religion, gastronomy, history, politics, and psychology.
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DIS.artStreaming art film platform (formerly a magazine) focusing on studio art, historic preservation and art history
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Netflix Media CenterEducational documentaries available for course use
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Films on DemandSelected streaming films from Films Media Group.
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Independent Documentary Filmmakers from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan Web ArchiveIndependent documentary and ephemeral primary sources archives which includes websites, blogs, and video feed belonging to notable filmmakers from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, all made available for future research and access. Chinese independent filmmakers from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have long been crucial to bringing attention to social and political developments in their areas, but due to the sensitive nature of their work, their web presences are at risk of disappearing. This project, part of the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation's Web Collecting Program, is an initiative of the Confederation's Collection Development Group.
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Socialism on FilmCollection of documentary, newsreel and feature films reveals the world as seen by Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese, East European, and Latin American filmmakers, from the early 20th century to the 1980s.
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March of Time, 1935-1967Newsreel and television series which ran in U.S. movie theaters until 1951 and on television until 1967, blending confrontational journalism and docudrama
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USC Shoah Foundation Visual History ArchiveDigital library of video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust.
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On the Boards TVOntheBoards.tv delivers full-length, high-quality contemporary performance films.
Subject Guide
Where can I stream it now?
Useful apps for Cinema & Media Studies
● IMDb, the Internet Movie Database, for filmographies, casts, credits, showtimes, reviews, and watchlists for film and TV.
● Letterboxd, a social network for film people with watchlists and reviews.
● Reelgood and JustWatch, streaming search and watchlists.
Not available to stream? It happens.
Search for the DVD in Van Pelt
Search Franklin for films and TV, streaming or as a DVD. Sometimes, even in the present day with access to many streaming services, for rights reasons, a DVD may be your fastest, or only, option.