Our vast selection of internationally relevant news, archival, nature, sports and entertainment clips and long-form video enables documentarians to tell captivating stories. Our library includes content from world renowned media companies, including BBC, CBS News, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), CCTV (Central China Television), ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Smithsonian Channel, National Geographic, March of Time®, HBO Archives, Cinesound Movietone, The New York Times Company, and NCAA®. We also provide documentarians with research support, onsite access to our partner archives and experts, rights and clearances expertise, and free screeners.

Below are a few documentary projects that Thought Equity Motion has worked on:

• We worked with New York-based production company, Boom Pictures, to license footage for “REAGAN,” a two hour HISTORY® documentary special that constructs a portrait of the former Commander in Chief through defining moments from his 94 years. In light of what would have been Reagan’s 100th birthday, the special was scheduled to premier on Feb. 6 on the HISTORY channel.  The majority of the video that Boom Pictures licensed for “REAGAN” came from  our offline CBS News archive. The clips cover a range of moments and events that impacted Reagan’s life, Presidency and death, including the Iran Contra scandal and the handwritten letter he addressed to the American people informing them that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. “REAGAN” premiered on HISTORY on February 9. To learn more about this special program, Click Here.

• New Animal Productions, a boutique production company, worked with our New York Documentary Team when producing, “JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America”—a two-part History® channel special about the Kennedy assassination and the speculation following his murder. The producers looked to our research experts to identify specific news content related to JFK and his assassination within the BBC and CBS News archives. Without a narrator, the producers placed the burden of storytelling squarely on the archive, trusting that the images themselves would tell the story. Since the four hour special was entirely comprised of archival video, the clips the producers ended up licensing from our BBC and CBS News collections were invaluable to the production. To view the trailer, Click Here.

• Over the course of the last five years, our New York Documentary Team worked closely with South Hill Films—independent documentary production company—to find unique archival footage for the biography, “Hubert H. Humphrey: The Art of The Possible.” The documentary  was syndicated through American Public Television (APT) on PBS in fall 2010. The film centers around Humphrey’s political life, the 1968 Presidential election, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which Humphrey played a large role in passing. The film’s director/producer licensed Civil Rights era and Vietnam War b-roll news footage from our CBS News collection to help tell the 38th Vice President of the United States’ life story. Hubert H. Humphrey: The Art of The Possible provides a detailed exploration of the 1964 Civil Right Act, and the archival content from our library helped make this possible. To learn more about Hubert H. Humphrey and the film, Click Here.

Click here to learn more about our footage licensing services for documentarians.