Video NewsBriefs, May 15, 2011
May 15, 2011Columbia University’s C.V. Starr East Asia Library recently received from Beauty Media Inc. a donation of over 6000 Chinese DVD titles, making it among the world’s largest East Asian film collections. The contribution—which spans feature films, TV series, drama, music, culture, language, ceremony, and martial arts—adds to an already strong collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Tibetan archival films. More at bit.ly/eOVxRm.
Documentary film cooperative New Day Films, which started as a feminist collective in the 1970s and today comprises over 100 diverse filmmaker-owners across the United States, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Its catalog of more than 250 educational films, available to libraries and educational institutions on DVD and digitally, via licensed video streams, spans such topics as human rights, aging and gerontology, health and addiction, and immigration and border studies. Enter for a chance to win your choice of ten New Day DVDs (valued at over $2000) at www.newday.com.
On May 17, Milestone Films will release Margot Benacerraf’s Araya on DVD for the first time. The 1959 film, rereleased in theaters in 2009, explores a day in the lives of three families living on the titular Venezuelan peninsula. The deluxe DVD edition includes three documentaries on Benacerraf, two commentary tracks, and the director’s first film, Reveron. More at www.milestonefilms.com and www.araya.com.
Facts On File and Films Media Group have launched Access Video on Demand, a streaming video subscription service offering public libraries unlimited access to more than 7800 full-length videos and 88,000 clips. Nine streaming video collections are available through the service, and dozens of new programs will be added monthly. Featured programs include Masterpiece Theatre, Ken Burns’s Jazz and Baseball documentaries, and In Search of History. More at bit.ly/eAkj1B.
More than 150 films from Criterion Collection are now available for online streaming via Hulu Plus, Hulu’s $7.99-per-month subscription service. To view the current catalog offerings, to which new films will be added upon digitization, visit www.hulu.com/criterion.
Electronic publisher Alexander Street Press (ASP) recently launched an integrated online repository of academic video titles. The new platform, Academic Video Online Complete, allows subscribers to search all ASP videos from a single interface. Later this year, the publisher will offer individual streaming title options as well. More at alexanderstreet.com.—Raya Kuzyk
