Film has always been an instrument for pushing back against media censorship. The need is less visible and more subtle in America than it was during the years of the Hays Code (see This Film is Not Yet Rated, HU DVD 2414), but in other countries, overt suppression of creative content continues to be the […]
Continue readingMonthly Archives: March 2016
Documentarians name their 50 favorite documentaries
We’re suckers for any good, contentious list of best films. Whenever a publication puts together their top 300 films or the best horror movies, it inevitably has a few holes, which is an opportunity to talk about what makes art great. (It also give us justification to argue about movies.) The latest “best of” roundup […]
Continue readingPardon the silence. We’re extra-busy!
We’ve been a little quiet recently, but not to worry! In the past few weeks, we’ve received an absolute mountain of DVDs for classic television shows, everything from I Dream of Jeannie to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. We’re working hard to get them to you as quickly as we can. In the meantime, while […]
Continue readingAlmost fifty years later, you can finally watch the original Batman
This Friday’s release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice marks the start of Ben Affleck’s new take on Gotham’s caped crusader. Batman’s nearly eighty-year history has allowed for adaptations of his stories with a wide thematic range. For every dark Batman story about justice, there’s another where Calendar Man appears (yes, that’s a real […]
Continue readingScreening Room wants you to watch new movies at home, and not everyone’s on-board
photo by Mr.TinDC via Flickr Years ago, we mentioned PRIMA Cinema, the absurdly expensive streaming device that requires a home inspection and, for $500 a pop, allows you to watch first-run Hollywood movies. This was mostly intended as a way for the Jay Lenos of the world to see The Force Awakens in the comfort […]
Continue readingNew Acquisitions – March 2016
You might notice that we’ve added a boatload of older television shows this month. We’re in the process of filling in our television back-catalog, and the place to start has been Full House and The Norm Show. Look for much more classic television to join the collection in the coming weeks. We’ve also started adding […]
Continue readingA rough early road for the Irish in film
Still from Whom the Gods Destroy via “Unsung Divas of the Silent Screen” While St. Patrick’s Day is now a generally beloved holiday (we’re going to grab Shamrock Shakes in a moment), it’s easy to forget that much of the world was inhospitable to the Irish a century ago. The hostile attitudes toward the Irish […]
Continue readingFor our Metroless day: public transit videos from our collection
In an unprecedented move, the entire Metro system is closed today. Whether or not this was the right choice, it means that DC is spending the day without its main form of public transit. There isn’t a documentary about the DC Metro (as far as we know) so we’ve gathered together three timely media items […]
Continue readingWatch these great new documentaries from Docuseek2
From Big Dream Our media librarian Chris Lewis once called streaming video website Docuseek2 “an embarrassment of riches” for fans of documentaries. We’re not gonna disagree: Docuseek2 lets you stream some incredibly high-quality documentary films, and this week, their collection got even larger. 43 new titles are now available via Docuseek2, including the comedic short […]
Continue readingParamount opens their vault to YouTube. Will other studios follow suit?
(embedded above: all of Masters of the Universe! For free!) Major movie studios are usually extremely protective of their copyrights and lead the charge against video piracy. So it comes as a surprise that Paramount Pictures has opened up a great deal of their film archive for consumption on YouTube. The Paramount Vault channel, which […]
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