And finally…Adam Matthew have given the Library trial access to their just released resource Socialism on Film. This impressive collection of documentaries, newsreels and features reveals the world as seen by Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese, East European, British and Latin American film makers. Documenting the communist world from the Russian Revolution until the 1980s and covering all aspects of socialist life.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page. Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 5th April 2017.

Socialism on Film is being released in 3 modules, modules 2 (Newsreels & Magazines) and 3 (Culture & Society) will be released in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Just released is module 1, covering ‘War & Revolutions’, and this is what we have trial access to. Module 1 covers the following areas:

• Lenin & the Russian Revolution
• The Second World War & the Rise of Fascism
• The Vietnam War & Southeast Asia
• Global tensions & the Cold War
• Nuclear War & Peace Movements
• The Holocaust & War Crimes
• Revolution, War, Conflict in China & Korea
• Revolution in Cuba & Latin America
• The Spanish Civil War

Source from the British Film Institute (BFI) archives, this project makes available the superb ETV-Plato FIlms collection put together by the British communist Stanley Forman in the years after the Second World War. This collection of films was produced almost exclusively in the communist world and then versioned into English for distribution in the West.

The database can be accessed for the duration of the trial period via e-resources trials.
Access available until 5th April 2017.
Feedback welcome.

Access is only available to current students and staff at University of Edinburgh.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for History, Classics and Archaeology.