ALEXANDRIA, VA – Indie films are synonymous with compelling viewpoints on historical events, insights into our current world, and innovative story-telling. Beyond that, they offer critical insights and profound perspectives on the human experience providing a new level of engagement for students with their classroom content.

Independent World Cinema: Classic and Contemporary Film, a new film collection from Alexander Street, a ProQuest company, provides streaming access to over 400 independent films essential for film studies, media studies and theater students. The films support research and learning in these fields yet have a wide range of applicability reaching as far as psychology, gender studies, and anthropology. Students will gain new insight and perspectives into their field in a format that they depend upon often—video.

Independent World Cinema Enhances Classroom Engagement:

• Imagine learning about World War II from Alfred Hitchcock’s Banned WWII Dramas Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache (Milestone Films).
• Envision bringing documentaries into your classrooms by Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry from Oscilloscope Films - founded by former Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch.
• Engage students with groundbreaking documentaries and international fictional features from Zeitgeist Films like Nowhere in Africa—Academy Award® Winner, Best Foreign Language Film.

Also ideal for Public Libraries, Independent World Cinema provides this content curated into one easy-to-access collection.

“The importance of this collection is two-fold,’” said Will Whalen, Director of Global Content, Alexander Street. “First, we are thrilled to bring together such a critical body of innovative and inspiring films.”

“Second,” Whalen continued, “we’ve enriched its value by offering it on a platform that empowers students, researchers and teachers to easily explore the material and incorporate it into their studies and workflows.”

Highlighted distributors from in this collection include:

Milestone Films – Milestone Films partners with archives around the world to restore and remaster important and overlooked films, winning numerous industry awards in the process. Perhaps America’s leading independent curator of vital film restorations, Milestone Films features eighteen films on the National Film Registry – a rare combination of canonical films with overlooked gems worthy of rediscovery.

Zeitgeist Films – The Zeitgeist Films catalog provides groundbreaking documentaries and international fictional features, including those from notable directors such as Derek Jarman, Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin, and Agnes Varda.

Oscilloscope Films – Founded by former Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch, Oscilloscope Films is one of the most exciting, eclectic labels in independent film. Viewers can easily access films from Spike Jonze (of Being John Malkovich fame) and Michel Gondry (of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fame), and the feature film Howl, covering the Allen Ginsberg obscenity trial.

Because this collection is available on Alexander Street’s streaming platform, students and researchers can now access the films they want whenever and wherever they need them. Alexander Street’s platform functionality makes using these films for educational purposes or personal enjoyment easy.

• The clip-making tool allows for customized clips to be integrated into lectures and presentations.
• Annotation tools are available for note-taking or reference needs.
• Instructors and students can create playlists for syllabi, review purposes, and more.
• Searchable scrolling transcripts allow for easy access to the film right where you need it and is idea for research purposes.
• Learning Management System (LMS) integration and LTI functionality allow for simplified access to the films.

About Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company

Alexander Street pairs exclusive streaming video, audio, and curated full-text with cutting-edge online tools to transform the way people research, learn, and teach in virtually every discipline.

About ProQuest

ProQuest is committed to supporting the important work happening in the world’s research and learning communities. The company curates content that matters to the advancement of knowledge, assembling an archive of billions of vetted, indexed documents. It simplifies workflows so that people and institutions use time effectively. And because ProQuest connects information communities, complex networks of systems and processes work together efficiently. With ProQuest, finding answers and deriving insights is straightforward and leads to extraordinary outcomes.

ProQuest and its companies and affiliates – Ex Libris, Alexander Street, Bowker – stand for better research, better learning, better insights. ProQuest enables people to change their world.