Free historical videos? Is there a site to grab them from? at DVinfo.net

Kit Hannah · February 3rd, 2007, 12:35 AM

I was wondering if anyone knew of a good website to download clips or full videos of historical events, such as the Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream" speech, or possibly interviews with historical people. We're producing a short for a school on diversity, and have toyed with the idea of throwing some clips in here and there. If anyone has a source, I would apprecitae it.

FYI - it's something we will need to incorporate into our videos, so we're looking for something at least around NTSC quality if possible. Thanks!

Boyd Ostroff · February 3rd, 2007, 09:32 AM

Archive.org is all that comes to mind: http://www.archive.org/details/movies. There are some interesting historical films in the Prelinger archives, not sure if you will find what you want there however. You aren't going to find NTSC quality either, but they aren't too bad. I used a lot of their war footage for an opera production, projected on 25 foot screen and it looked OK. It had a stylized, "old-timey" look but that was fine for what I was doing.

But for what you describe, you may find it difficult to get free video which is also high quality.

February 3rd, 2007, 12:35 AM	#1
Kit Hannah Major Player Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Fresno, California Posts: 528	Free historical videos? Is there a site to grab them from? I was wondering if anyone knew of a good website to download clips or full videos of historical events, such as the Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream" speech, or possibly interviews with historical people. We're producing a short for a school on diversity, and have toyed with the idea of throwing some clips in here and there. If anyone has a source, I would apprecitae it. FYI - it's something we will need to incorporate into our videos, so we're looking for something at least around NTSC quality if possible. Thanks!

February 3rd, 2007, 09:32 AM	#2
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	Archive.org is all that comes to mind: http://www.archive.org/details/movies. There are some interesting historical films in the Prelinger archives, not sure if you will find what you want there however. You aren't going to find NTSC quality either, but they aren't too bad. I used a lot of their war footage for an opera production, projected on 25 foot screen and it looked OK. It had a stylized, "old-timey" look but that was fine for what I was doing. But for what you describe, you may find it difficult to get free video which is also high quality.