We’ve previously talked about Films on Demand, a streaming video database we subscribe to that contains thousands of documentaries on seemingly every subject. Although a few of them come from big distributors like Discovery or History, they’re mostly smaller affairs. Color us excited that Films on Demand is expanding its offerings to include feature films – and, most notably, the Eyes on the Prize documentary series.
Firstly, Films on Demand has offered us a trial of their new World Cinema database. It includes works by major directors from the earlier days of film, including Kurosawa, Eisenstein, Hitchcock, Chaplin, and more. We haven’t yet committed to subscribing to the full version of this database, but it is by far one of the biggest and most substantive we’ve ever taken a look at. Please take a look at what it has to offer, and if you can see yourself using it in the future, please email your thoughts to our Media Librarian Chris Lewis (clewis@american.edu).
Secondly, and perhaps most excitingly to our many faculty members who use the series, PBS’s Eyes on the Prize is now available in its entirety through the main Films on Demand database. Eyes on the Prize is the definitive documentary about the civil rights movement, and its fourteen parts are frequently used for history courses. Eyes on the Prize has been borderline out-of-print for many years, and its release on streaming platforms is enormously exciting given its previous troubled release history.
These are both big additions from Films on Demand, and we can’t wait to see what they have in store next. It’s hard to beat It’s a Wonderful Life and His Girl Friday on demand, though.