Analysis of audiovisual documents as historical sources on the basis of feature film cinematography, musical pieces and video clips of American mass culture of the 1990s

The article provides an algorithm of how a historical researcher works with non-documentary audiovisual sources, such as feature films, musical pieces and musical videos, which are quite rarely used to analyze a certain historical period. It is stated that such sources should be definitely taken into account by historians, since they reflect the ideas which are already present in a society or are still penetrating into it. The given research was conducted using as an example the topic of school violence culture in the USA. The novelty of the study is to present an algorithm of feature film analysis, while the present methodological material is intended for a work with documentary and live action historical films. The author identifies three stages of work with audiovisual sources equally suitable for cinema, music and music videos, with the main focus on feature film cinematography. These stages are as follows: defining a range of sources, analysis of such sources aimed at determining ideas and images, studying how the ideas are functioning in the society. The major problem which a researcher can face working with audiovisual resources is claimed to be subjectiveness, which someway or other is present at all the three mentioned stages, although it should be minimized when making conclusions.