University Libraries

Fox’s “Looney Lens” series was launched to humorously highlight special effects camerawork. The split images of skyscrapers and automobiles are uncannily close to those used in Dziga Vertov’s “The Man with a Movie Camera”. The warping lens used to photograph Tenth Avenue, however, seems to puzzle the filmmakers. — BRUCE POSNER

LOONEY LENS SERIES - 2 FILM COMPILATION: SPLIT SKYSCRAPERS (1924, 1:07 minutes) and TENTH AVENUE, NYC (1924, 1:50 minutes), 35mm, 1.33:1, black and white, silent with music, 16 fps, 3:23 minutes. Production Fox Movietone News.

FEATURE AND DOCUMENTARY CONTENT, INTERNATIONAL

Start here to locate film titles.  These cover international, historical, award winning, canonical titles.  Titles purchased from these vendors are licensed yearly (sometimes 3 yrs, perpetuity); fee runs from $150-$350.  

• Kanopy - International, Documentary, Independent, Award Winners, Experimental 
• SWANK Digital Campus - Feature Films, especially older titles
• Docuseek - Features and documentaries, social justice POV
• Academic Video Online (AVON) - More than 64,000 titles including Sony Pictures Classics

AVON AND FILMS ON DEMAND INCLUDE FEATURES AND DOCS; some distributors and titles are listed below.  AVON and FOD have tons of content ranging from feature films to training videos, documentaries, news, and history.  

Below are some to the top distributors of feature films and documentaries, a few film suggestions from each distributor have been added to peek your curiosity.  We don't have everything, but we have a lot of good stuff from a lot of good distributors and filmmakers.

• California Newsreel - Karmen Gei, Brother Outsider, Strange Fruit 
• Cinema Guild - Off the Rez, Inocente, Sari's Mother  
• Criterion Collection - 7 Samurai, Cleo 5 to 7, Le Hahne, Mon Oncle 
• Film Platform - Girl Rising, RBG, Human Flow 
• First Run Features - docs/features
• Grasshopper Films - Herb & Dorothy, Sweetgrass, Behemoth 
• Music Box Films - Ida, Monsieur Lazhar, Betty Page Reveals All 
• Oscilloscope Pictures - Meeks Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy, Howl 
• Ro*co Films - RBG, Human Flow, Life, Animated
• Silent Film Online - L'Inhumaine, Flicker Alley titles, Broken Blossoms, Strike 
• Sony Pictures Classics Feature Films - Call Me by Your Name, Celluloid Closet, Wajda, Persepolis
• Sundance Films - Performance Artist, The Square, Madeline's Madeline
• The Video Project - Minimalism, Babushkas of Chernobyl, The Barber of Birmingham