More SLRC Treasures: Sights & Sounds Department

The Sights and Sounds Department (SAS) just has so many treasures that we had to make it two blog entries! Learn more about the great hidden gems of SAS.

Frederick Wiseman Documentaries: Along with Ken Burns, “cinema verite” devotee Frederick Wiseman is considered one of today’s greatest living documentary filmmakers, but because Wiseman controls his own catalog and sells his films at prices (often several hundred dollars per title) beyond the budget of most institutions, few viewers get to see his critically acclaimed work. Thankfully, SLRC has purchased a number of his best titles over the years, including his groundbreaking Titicut Follies, High School, Hospital, Law and Order, and Near Death. The investment has paid off in terms of customer satisfaction, with the Baltimore City Paper honoring Pratt’s Wiseman collection as “Best of Baltimore” in 2005.

Annenberg/CPB Foreign Language Videos: Like Frederick Wiseman videos, these foreign language videos, funded by Annenberg/CPB (a non-profit dedicated to promoting innovation in schools), are prohibitively expensive for most institutions. But their “total immersion” approach (in which viewers are forced to listen, speak and read only in that foreign language) has been critically acclaimed. SLRC’s Annenberg/CPB series include Destinos (a 52-episode video instructional series for college and high school classrooms and adult learners that teaches speaking, listening, and comprehension skills in Spanish), French in Action (a 52-episode video series using professor Pierre Capretz’s immersion method to increase fluency in French, while introducing French culture), and Connect with English (a 50-episode video series designed to teach English as a second language to high school, college, and adult-aged foreign language speakers).

“Eyes on the Prize” Videos and DVDs: Though now readily available on DVD, this award-winning 14-hour documentary series about the American Civil Rights Movement – originally broadcast in 1987 as a PBS TV mini-series - was long out of circulation (due to copyright issues with its archival footage) until 2006. During those years, SLRC always had the complete historical series available for students and educators, who used it as an essential part of their curriculum. In addition to the original six-hour 1987 series Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, which covered the years 1954-1965, SLRC also owns the complete eight-hour video/DVD series Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads (1990), covering the period from 1965-1985.

SLRC Treasures: Sights & Sounds Department

The Sights & Sounds Department (SAS) of the Central Library/State Library Resource Center houses a collection of audio-visual materials reflecting the general scope of most Pratt subject areas. But there’s more to SAS than just popular and world music CDs, fiction audiobooks (on cassette tape and CD), and educational and popular movies on DVD and video. Some of its lesser-known gems include:

16mm Films: Did you know that SAS maintains a collection of over 2,100 16mm film titles, including many obscure and hard-to-find titles not available in other media formats? There is a concentration in the areas of independently produced films (including many Baltimore Film Festival entries), student films, film history, children's films, animation, experimental and avant-garde shorts, and documentary films. The collection also boasts an impressive number of feature films, including films from the silent era, Hollywood classics and a broad representation of world cinema. And because all of SAS’s 16mm films have "public performance rights" (meaning they can be shown at free public screenings without having to get clearance from the copyright owners), they are frequently used by local film curators, including Station North’s Windup Space, Hexagon/Magic Eye Cinema, and the 14K Cabaret’s Nineteen23 non-theatrical film series. (All 16mm films are stored in the third floor A/V Inspection Room; although this room is not open to the public, staff will bring films down to the Sights & Sounds Department upon patron request.)

Phonograph Records: Long considered a “dead medium” in the era of digital CDs, vinyl records are coming a comeback, with a growing number of popular musicians now releasing their works on 33 1/3 albums (with the vinyl version sometimes more expensive than the CD!). Although SAS no longers adds to its phonograph collection, it boasts an impressive collection of both musical and spoken word records, including many that have never been released on CD. Strengths include ‘50s and ‘60s jazz, obscure children’s records (including a number of hard-to-find titles by electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack), UNESCO’s renowned world/folk library, and its spoken word collection that features famous authors and poets reading their works, like the extremely rare H. L. Mencken Conversing with Donald Howe Kirkley (used copies of this out-of-print 1957 interview conducted by the Baltimore Sun’s Kirkley fetch up to $60 on eBay!). You can even hear world-famous mime Marcel Marceau speak (it’s true!) on his instruction record Marcel Marceau Speaks in English. (Like its 16mm film collection, records are stored in SAS’s third floor A/V Inspection Room; staff will bring records down to the Sights & Sounds Department upon request.)

More SAS treasures to be revealed next week!

What are some upcoming movies based on books? How can I keep up with this?

There are many places you can check for upcoming movies; in the writing credits on these websites you can find out if the film is adapted from a book. These sites are not always complete, so it is worth checking more than one. Movie release dates are always subject to change, especially dates further in the future, so it is always good to check.

One site from a “book-centric” point-of-view is Book Reporter.com.

Film sites that are good to use, and link to more information about the films, include:

Variety Film Release Chart
As this is an entertainment industry newspaper, it is likely to be the most accurate the further one goes into the future, but in the basic listings, it won’t tell you whether the film is based on a book.

Internet Movie Database Coming Soon
Click on the title for more information, e.g. writing credits.

Three more films sites that include upcoming films listings, but are especially good for finding reviews, are:

• Movie Review Query Engine
• Metacritic
• Rotten Tomatoes

And, finally, a good place to check for over 1,250 older films adapted from books, check Mid-Continent Public Library’s “Based on the Book”.

Some upcoming 2010 films based on books to look forward to include:

• Alice in Wonderland (March 5)
• Jonah Hex (June 18)
• The Twilight Sage: Eclipse (June 30)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (November 19)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (December 10)
  

Review Thursday: Nonfiction

Film Art: An Introduction, 8th edition, by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson (2008)

Anyone who believes that film is a true art, whether student or serious viewer, will gain new insights into “the seventh art.”

David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson are pioneers in the teaching of film. Their writing is clear and precise. The first edition of Film Art was published in 1979, and now film students and cinephiles have the Eighth Edition of this classic text. They clarify such misunderstood terms as mise-en-scene and explain how to distinguish between “story” and “plot.”

The order of the text has been honed over the years for optimal use. The authors start with the basics of production, distribution and exhibition of different types of film. They then move to an extensive examination of film form, drawing on The Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane for illustrations, and the finer points of filmmaking. The core of the book is an examination of that all-encompassing thing, mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, and sound, always with good examples. While the fictional feature film is emphasized, documentaries, experimental, and animated films are not slighted.

The text is capped with analyses of 10 films of various genres and nationalities and an appendix for students on how to write a critical analysis of a film.

A short, final section of the book, which covers “Film art and Film History,” a good preview for the equally fine companion volume, Film History: An Introduction.

The icing on the cake is the extremely useful extras – a DVD with examples and commentary, suggestions for further study (“Where to Go From Here”) at the end of each chapter, sidebars within each chapter (“A Closer Look”), recommended DVD supplements and a glossary.

The candles on the cake are a Web site for the text and the blog that Bordwell and Thompson maintain, Observations on film art and Film Art, which is always being updated with useful links and articles.

Essential Resources and Other Sources: Sights and Sounds

The Sights and Sounds Department at the State Library Resource Center includes all of the audio-visual materials, covering CDs, audiobooks, DVDs, and videos.

Essential Resources

Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook and Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide are annual guides that are quick and reliable sources for patron’s seeking movie reviews.

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, written by film critics and historians, is a thoughtfully compiled list of movies selected for their historical importance and popular acclaim.   

501 Movie Stars: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Screen Actors is filled with bios and filmographies, as well as an entertaining collection of quotes from the stars off-camera.

501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers profiles important film directors, including a discussion of their work and influences, their complete filmography, and listing of awards they have received.

Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, authored by jazz historians, features more than 14,000 reviews of CDs and 400 new artist entries. Entries include very brief descriptions of the artists and a list of their recordings, with reviews and ratings by the authors.

Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings surveys the recorded work of more than a thousand blues artists with crisp, expert, and witty reviews of almost six thousand recordings

Classical Music: Third Ear: The Essential Listening Companion is an excellent guide to classical music which ranges over the entire history of recorded sound, with 50-plus contributors covering some 500 composers.

The New Penguin Opera Guide presents an encyclopedia of major operas, offering text sources, premiere dates, character names with voice types, synopses, and some critical remarks.

Books Out Loud: Bowker’s Guide to Audiobooks contains bibliographic information on over 120,050 titles, including more than 16,500 on CD.  Listings include reader's name, price, running time, number of cassettes or CD's, content summary, release date, abridged or unabridged version, and availability.

Other Sources

Bowker’s Complete Video Directory together with The Video Source Book are the most comprehensive video directories on the market.  They are good for tracking down hard-to-find titles and providing patrons with a definitive reference and selection guide to the video market.

AV Marketplace is a directory of companies that create, apply, or distribute Audio-Visual equipment and services for business, education, science, and government.

VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever is the most extensive single volume resource for movie reviews available, containing reviews of more than 22,000 movies written with wit and humor.

VideoHound’s World Cinema: The Adventurer’s Guide to Movie Watching is a highly subjective but always entertaining work of short critiques of hundreds of non-U.S. movies from all times and countries. Interspersed are short biographies of major directors and performers.  The book concludes with an excellent index

Animation on DVD is an extensive guide to animation and anime films available on DVD.  Entries include storylines, reviews, history, ratings, and technical data.

Schwann Opus is the primary consumer listing of classical, jazz and pop recordings, and is supplemented by a constantly updated Web site.

The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States is an authoritative resource on American film information for the years 1893-1972, containing plot summaries, full production credits, details of cast and music, and indexing by both subject and genre.

Film Index International to Film Periodicals is a major information resource for entertainment films and personalities. With a scholarly, inclusive approach to all film genres, this work provides international coverage, indexing films from over 170 countries.

The Encyclopedia of Television includes histories of major television networks as well as broadcasting systems around the world and is complemented by resource materials, photos and bibliographical information.

Encyclopedia of Documentary Film is a fully international reference work on the history of the documentary film that explains concepts and themes in the study of documentary film, the techniques used in making films, and the institutions that support their production, appreciation, and preservation.

Essential Resources and Other Sources: Humanities

The Humanities Department of the State Library Resource Center covers such topics as religion, philosophy, theater, movies, TV, language, literature, and library science.

Essential Resources


The Essay and General Literature Index: Indexes books of essays on subjects including both philosophy, history, and literature.

Encyclopedia of Religion: Detailed articles covering religions from all parts of the world, religious figures, gods and goddesses, concepts, terms, and peoples.

New Catholic Encyclopedia. Information about all aspects of the Roman Catholic religion, other religions, saints, popes, and other figures of importance to Catholicism.

Benét’s Reader’s Encyclopedia. Information about literary works, fictional characters, authors and poets, literary terms, literary movements and trends throughout history.

A Handbook to Literature. Definitions of literary terms of all types, detailed explanations with examples.

Novels for Students. Analyzes individual novels with brief biographies of the authors, plot summaries, analyses of each character, themes, discussions of styles, excerpts from literary criticisms, and bibliographies.

Contemporary Literary Criticism. Offers literary criticism for current writers or those who died after 1960. Index at Reference desk.

The Columbia-Granger’s Index to Poetry. The standard work for locating specific poems in collections.

Oxford English Dictionary. The authoritative dictionary of the English Language, giving not only definitions, but also the history of each word.

Contemporary Authors. Bio-bibliographies of authors, including lists of works and brief biographies.

MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. Guide to the most commonly used style for language and literature term papers, including online and other electronic citations.

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. Chronological listing of famous quotations dating from Biblical times to the present.

Other Sources

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. In depth and highly detailed articles on philosophy including terms, biographies, histories of philosophical movements and eras.

Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an. In-depth historical and religious information about the Qur’an.

The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Location of each word used in the King James Version of the Bible, along with the use of word variations according to translation.

Anchor Bible Dictionary. Comprehensive information about the bible including etymology of names and words, descriptions of places plus maps, and histories of events from non-Biblical sources.

Shakespeare for Students. Analyzes Shakespeare's works including plot summaries, analyses of each character, themes, discussions of styles, excerpts from literary criticisms, and bibliographies.

Twentieth Century Literature Criticism. Offers literary criticism for authors writing in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

The Film Encyclopedia. Comprehensive listings of actors, directors, film terminology, producers, and other information.

The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States. A very detailed series of volumes covering the years 1893-1950 and then 1961-1970, offering extensive plot summaries as well as various indices.