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ART 150: History of Film & Animation (Keeney-Loudoun)

This guide has been created to help you find resources related to this program of study. Direct comments to Julie Combs, jcombs@nvcc.edu.

Need Help?

For individual research help, schedule an appointment to meet with a librarian.


Assignment

The film analysis assignments are designed for you to demonstrate your skills in research and writing, as well as your knowledge of film history. This analysis can cover any film made between 1895 to 1945. You are to craft a research question around a film of your choosing, you may choose a film from outside the class or one we have watched, and use this research question to explore aspects of the film. These can include:

  • the film’s text
  • cultural relevance of the film
  • historical circumstances of the film
  • social consequences of the film
  • application of theoretical schools of thought to the film
  • or other analytic approaches

This assignment has a minimum word count of 1000 words, as anything less than that will most likely not provide a complete analysis. As this is a research paper, you need to include reference to at least 2 sources that are not the film, one of them academic. These sources need to be properly cited in the paper, in MLA style.

Encyclopedias and Other Starting Points

To develop a general topic into a specific research question, explore some of the encyclopedias and other sources below to get ideas and inspiration. 
Some of the things you can look for include: genre, style, characters, themes, historical or cultural context, influences, or form.


   For the Library Catalog search below, to make sure you JUST get encyclopedia/reference articles:

  • Click the EVERYTHING button.
  • Type the name of your film, genre, director, historical event, or other general topic related to film/a specific film.
  • On your page of results, use the filters on the left to limit to Resource Type - Reference Entries.

Search the Library Catalog