#Kanopy

[specialagentartemis]

Truly underappreciated library resource: Kanopy!

It's a movie-and-tv streaming service that many libraries offer. If your library supports it, you can get a free account with your library card!

It works similarly to Hoopla, with monthly checkout limits, but the amount of movies and tv they have is astounding. They focus on indie movies and documentaries, but they have an impressive variety. A few days ago, some friends and I watched an experimental Afrofuturist queer surreal-cyberpunk musical movie just to try it, and it was a strange and fascinating experience that I wouldn't have gotten anywhere else. (Neptune Frost, by the way. It's interesting!)

Kanopy has animated movies like the French/North African The Rabbi's Cat (Le chat du rabbin), popular indies like The Secret of Kells, up to well-known ones like ParaNorman. It has popular quirky successes like Everything Everywhere All at Once, But I'm a Cheerleader, and Lady Bird, award-winning dramas like Moonlight, classic movies like The Graduate, Dial M for Murder, Roman Holiday, Rashomon, and Seven Samurai. It's got Charlie Chaplin. It's got some classic musicals, like Oklahoma! and Guys and Dolls. It's got classic horror like Suspiria, Nosferatu, and Night of the Living Dead, and a plethora of modern horror as well. It has cheesy old-timey sci-fi from the 50s and 60s, genuinely good classic sci-fi like The Boys from Brazil, cult classics like Donnie Darko, modern feel-good quirky sci-fi like Jules, and just, a WHOLE lot of super interesting creative modern indie sci-fi to browse. It has documentaries. It has quite a lot of PBS and BBC series. It has anime. It has all of Farscape for some reason. It has a really impressive collection of LGBTQ+ film from around the world.

See if your library offers Kanopy, and browse the genres you like - you are sure to find something fascinating that you had never heard of before!

[cursedreverie1945]

Because I am a wealth of useless information.

If you are looking for a way to stream uncommon or international tv and movies in the US, check with your library to see if they have the Kanopy app. It should be listed on the library website, but not all.

It is rather expensive for libraries to have, so yours may not. You will need a library card.

Kanopy will have stuff that won't necessarily be on the regular apps like Netflix, Prime, Hulu, etc.

They also group things by type. Yesterday there was a list of movies from Cannes. You can look up tv/movies by country or area such as Germany or Middle East. They also list languages. Oh this is a Spanish film or French. Documentaries and fictional.

Highly recommend. And? It is completely legal and free.

[archivlibrarianist]

H/t: American Libraries Infodocket.

"Using OverDrive’s award-winning Libby and Sora apps, readers worldwide borrowed over 739 million ebooks, audiobooks, and digital magazines, a 17% increase over 2023. Streaming video through libraries and universities on Kanopy also reached a record 27.8 million plays." (emphasis added)

Mind you, this is a press release from OverDrive, only one company that provides ebooks, audiobooks, and digital magazines to library users. If you expand that count to digital providers worldwide, what would that look like?

[sarahthecoat]

hey, the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle Pride and Prejudice is on Kanopy right now! if you aren't already signed up, get out your library card and do it!

[gray-paladin]

Watching Sonic the Hedgehog movie, and a video game based movie about an adorable lonely blue hedgehog child who finds a family should make me tear up this much!

[streamondemand]

'Professor Marston and the Wonder Women' - a different kind of origin story on Prime Video

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017) is not your usual comic superhero origin story. It turns out that the majestic Amazon princess from a mythic island of female warriors was born of a Harvard psychologist and outspoken feminist who had a polyamorous relationship with two women who inspired the character and a passion for sexual bondage play. The strange, fascinating story of Dr.…

[xxxvomitboyxxx]

"I hate streaming services" "I miss video stores" "The movie I want isn't on any streaming service/the ones that I pay for" "I'll just pirate it" Did you know your public library most likely has movies that you could either check out in person, or that you could put on hold from their catalog, OR rent from a streaming service like Kanopy that the library pays for where you can check out movies and watch them at home for FREE and not only on your phone or laptop or tablet but on your SMART TV in your LIVING ROOM because Kanopy is a compatible app?! Support and utilize your public library before it's goneeeeee <3

[coeurdeverre82]

enjoyed this totally bonkers movie

[kickmuncher3]

she lets me hit because i let her use my kanopy tickets

[decentluck13]

I finally watched "Dirty Computer" (Director's Cut) (2018) (available on Kanopy; free with your local library card!)

And it was very powerful

And very artful

And very beautiful

And VERY timely.

And timely enough that the twist at the end really fuckin horrified me. Credits rolled and I screamed.

But ultimately, this was a good one to watch on this election night. I was looking for something to watch to distract from the numbers rolling in, and this emotion picture was not distracting so much as a very beautiful reckoning, face to face with my dread and grief, and after the reckoning, what's left is strength. What's left is resilience. What's left is love and pride and refusing to be "cleaned" by a world that hates us for what we are.

Thanks for the art, Janelle. Thanks for the reminder that this is our home too, no matter how much people may try to erase us from memory.

[lovejam]

I have a brief moment in this film and I’m about to watch this on Kanopy.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

you should also check out hoopla and kanopy if you have a public library card!!!!! i'm constantly surprised by how many movies they have. also youtube has a bunch of movies free with ads too, and it seems like they keep adding more.

Oh, I absolutely have Hoopla, and thank you for mentioning Kanopy. I haven't heard of that one and will check it out!

Youtube has been doing a lot to go, "HEY YOU LIKE THIS MOVIE RIGHT?" and I go, "YES" and it's free! It's very nice. Big fan.

And it also has a lot of MST3k for 100% free, which means one of my biggest comfort shows is both always available and continuing to live by it's own rule (keep circulating the tapes)

[etakeh]

oooh The Adventures of Mark Twain is on Kanopy!

Go watch it! It's a kid show! It'll make you laugh! It'll make you think! And sometimes, It'll freak you right the hell out!

[hippo-pot]

got some more reviews of media on Kanopy (which is freeeeee you just need a library card)

Fingerstyle Guitar: How To Play Acoustic Fingerpicking Guitar (2005): I play ukulele, not guitar, but I've never taken a formal lesson and this was genuinely pretty helpful. It's given me new concepts to practice, and it was only like an hour. Can't complain

Last ExMas (2024): I was hoping this would be more interesting, but if you want an extremely normal, trope-filled rom-com, but with lesbians, go for it. I like rom-coms and think they have potential as a genre but I find most of them not to my taste, so I definitely could have predicted my feelings about this one. My preferred Christmas lesbian rom-com is Happiest Season (also not great though imo), and my favorite rom-com of all time is To All The Boys I've Loved Before, just for reference. (I'm advertising movies not available on Kanopy, so you know I really didn't like this one)

Death on the Nile (1978): Really enjoyed this one. I like mysteries and I hadn't seen or read any version of this before, so I got the full experience and it didn't disappoint. I don't think I'd ever seen Mia Farrow in anything before but I loved her in this, she and Angela Lansbury were clearly having tons of fun. I also liked Bette Davis, and it was fun to see Dame Maggie Smith in a role like this, I'm definitely used to seeing her with more dignity haha. Poirot was there too I guess. but the star of this movie was definitely Women 👍

[salty-we-never-got-mergana]

So apparently, I could watch benjamin for free on Kanopy, as long as I have my library card number and password/pin...unfortunately, I don't remember what that is...

[coeurdeverre82]