Library Guides: Streaming Media: Feature Films and Documentaries

Feature Films and Documentaries

Kanopy
On-demand streaming service with more than 30,000 classic films, documentaries, and instructional videos. Marketed as “Netflix for colleges.” Many titles are accompanied by searchable, self-scrolling transcripts. Supports playlist and clip creation.
Docuseek2
A collection of more than 1,200 full-length and shorter documentaries and educational films. Supports playlist and clip creation.
Includes Bullfrog Films, Icarus Films (including The Fanlight Collection and dGenerate Films), Kartemquin Films, KimStim, the National Film Board of Canada, and Terra Nova Films.
Film Platform
Film Platform serves as a bridge between academia and documentary film, bringing the most relevant and highly regarded films from the festival circuit.
Film Platform no longer offers full access to its catalog and now offers access on a title-by-title basis. Please speak with your liaison librarian if you're interested in a film.
Swank Digital Campus
More than 100 feature films from the 1930s up through 2016.
Filmakers Library Online
Provides access to more than 1,000 award-winning documentaries.
Academic Video Online
Thousands of streaming videos from a large number of produces and distributors across a wide range of subject areas.
Films on Demand
Streaming media in a variety of disciplines.
Feature Films for Education
From Films on Demand, feature films with educational licenses.
JFLIX
Streaming platform dedicated to award winning films on various topics dealing with Judaism and Israel.
Alexander Street Press Videos (multi-search)
Access the streaming video content from Alexander Street Press.

Netflix Documentaries

The streaming service Netflix offers permission for educational screening of selected documentary titles. The terms of permission are described here: educational screening permission. To find out if this permission is offered for a particular title on Netflix, go to the Netflix media page and search the title there, and look for this phrase on the information page for the title: “GRANT OF PERMISSION FOR EDUCATIONAL SCREENINGS.” You can also try this search link (Netflix educational documentary search), which will search for the permission phrase, but also return some unrelated titles. Note that you cannot access any titles from https://media.netflix.com without an approved press account. Instructors must access these titles from the regular Netflix page.

Netflix also has a smaller selection of educational documentaries it has made available on YouTube (educational documentary YouTube playlist). As of January 2022 there were 42 titles in this playlist.

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Streaming Media

Feature Films and Documentaries

Netflix Documentaries