I never knew how many different websites we had access to as York University students until I discovered the Sound and Moving Image library (SMIL). The Sound and Moving Image library is one of the many resources available to students, encouraging us to broaden our horizons and discover new things like documentaries, films and more. One film I discovered thanks to the use of the SMIL was the 2009 movie Avatar. Having been a young child when the film came out, I had some faint memories of movie trailers but I had no clue what the movie was actually about. Having access to the SMIL allowed me to search hundreds of different films in a variety of genres and discover movies both new and old. I was able to look up movies I had watched religiously throughout my childhood but hadn’t seen in years and find newer movies that I had not yet had the chance to see. I think that as a student, having access to something like the Sound and Moving Image library is a wonderful thing because in today’s day and age, so many things are digitalized that people rarely visit a physical library to conduct research. Instead, search engines like Google have triumphed. However, it is often difficult to find relevant resources and so having the SMIL at our fingertips when performing assignments such as our film festival assignment allows for a plethora of knowledge and artistic creativity to be brought to light. I personally found it incredible just how many films we as students had access to without even knowing it.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 