It is important in your search for scholarship that you include multimodal forms and not just standard academic texts. In both your proposal and thesis, you should be including cinematic forms of scholarship in your reference list.
Plus, if you are looking to make documentary films, then you should be watching as many as you can. These are important reference points for content as well as sources of inspiration. When looking for inspiration, we advise you to look beyond YouTube and Netflix, which will mostly feature formulaic approaches that do not usually demonstrate the kinds of ethnographic sensibilities we advocate.
We provide access to two important collections of ethnographic films. First, the university subscribes to the four volumes of Ethnographic Video Online by Alexander Street Press (a subsidy of ProQuest) that is available via the LU library. To navigate to these volumes, login to the library page and go to Find Databases, then find Ethnographic Video Online in the list (second page under the letter E). Once redirected, it will default to Volumes 1 & 2, where you can search for key terms. To see the other available volumes, click on the toggle menu in top left (three horizontal lines) and select Collections.
Our institute also has a subscription specifically for the Visual Methods and Visual Ethnography students to the NAFA Film Collection (Nordic Anthropological Film Association). To access use the following login credentials.
Account username: NAFA for Leiden
Password: Leiden2020
The Journal of Anthropological Films (JAF) is an Open Access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes films that with an interest in themes of anthropological concern. This initiative is supported by NAFA.
The Journal of Video Ethnography aims to advance the social scientific use of video/film as a method for exploring human society, systems, and cultures and as a medium for presenting the findings of those explorations. JVE is supported by a sociology department in the US, provides through a free membership interface.
Another service that we recommend for both ethnographic and experimental films is DAfilms, which has a Monthly subscription of €6 and yearly subscription at €60, which offers two months for free. They often run discount campaigns.
Films produced by The Ethnographic Film Unit at the University of British Columbia provides access to their film in this online portfolio
If you discover other interesting sites, let us know so we can add them to the list.