Film production companies and distributors protect revenue and copyright through very strict control of viewing access. Viewing a film or documentary is dictated by public performance rights and copyright. Public performance rights are not superseded by educational fair use; if a film or documentary is to be shown on campus outside the classroom, public performance rights must be purchased.
Public performance rights typically cover a single viewing event or broadcast. Public performance rights are costly, with an average cost of $750 per event. The costs vary between production houses, distributors, and other attributes factor in such as film release date.
Feature film streaming is controlled by exclusive public performance licensing companies; the two largest licensing companies in the United States are Swank Motion Pictures, Inc., and Criterion Pictures:
Educational Fair Use Streaming - both Swank and Criterion have created licensing/streaming products for college and university libraries, specifically to meet classroom educational needs:
Occasionally, feature films are made available for free streaming. Check YouTube and the film's or director's website to see if a film is available for free.
Streaming availability and options for documentaries is more varied than that of feature films. Documentaries are made for and by television studios, streaming subscription services, small independent production companies, and major production studios. Unlike feature films, there are more potential vendors that offer streaming for documentaries and documentary series. A streaming documentary may be offered for free, rental, purchase, through a streaming subscription service, or even through one of the feature film streaming services like Swank.
For colleges and universities, there are several streaming subscription companies that offer collections or individual licensing of documentaries. Hood subscribes to two services, Academic Video Online Premium and Swank.