Today's episode features a conversation with filmmaker Christopher Jason Bell, who joins the show to discuss Miss Me Yet, his ten-part found footage series on the presidency of George W. Bush and rehabilitation of Bush's image in recent years. The series is available to stream for free via Means TV. Also, check out an essay on Miss Me Yet written b…

Today's episode is the third in an ongoing collaboration between The Video Essay Podcast and "The Video Essay: Memories, Ecologies, Bodies," a three-year research project on video essays led by Kevin B. Lee, Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema at USI University of Lugano, with Johannes Binotto and Evelyn Kreutzer, and funded by…

Today's episode features a conversation with Alison Peirse, a horror film scholar and professor at the University of Leeds. Alison led the project Doing Women’s (Global) (Horror) Film History (DWGHFH), a year-long video essay mentoring and training program that culminated in a videographic special issue of MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture. DWGHFH fea…

Today's episode is the second in an ongoing collaboration between The Video Essay Podcast and "The Video Essay: Memories, Ecologies, Bodies," a three-year research project on video essays led by Kevin B. Lee, Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema at USI University of Lugano, with Johannes Binotto and Evelyn Kreutzer, and funded b…

On today's episode, Will talks with filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho about his new film, Pictures of Ghosts. Set in the director's home city of Recife, in the Pernambuco state of Brazil, the film is a self-described "multidimensional journey through time, sound, architecture and filmmaking." Kleber talks about the film's origins, the art of voiceove…

Today's episode centers on Sight & Sound magazine's new list, "The Best Video Essays of 2023." In a conversation moderated by Kevin B. Lee, the curators of this year's list, Irina Trocan, Queline Meadows, and Will Webb, discuss the results of the poll, their curatorial strategies, and offer general thoughts on the video essay landscape in 2023. Thi…

On today's episode, Will is joined by Catherine Fowler, a film scholar based at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Catherine curated the most recent special issue of the journal, [in]Transition, which features feminist videographic diptychs by six scholars: Nicole Morse, Maryam Tafakory, Melissa Dollman, Paola Voci, Maud Ceuterick, and Catheri…

On today's episode, Evelyn Kreutzer, a Berlin-based scholar, curator, and video essayist, joins to discuss her videographic origin story, collaborative projects (including Once Upon a Screen and Moving Poems), videographic vulnerability, the new Videography section of the journal zfm, and more. We also discuss Evelyn's video essay, "Footsteps," and…

Today's episode features a conversation with Alan O'Leary, a scholar and artist based at Aarhus University. On today's episode, we discuss Alan's origin story, the videographic "society," academic labor and mode, organizing videographic events, and more. We also discuss Alan's video, "Nebular Epistemics: A Glossary (Scholarship Like a Spider or Spi…

On today's episode, writer-director Alexandre O. Philippe joins to discuss his new film, Lynch/Oz, which explores the relationship between the cinema of David Lynch and The Wizard of Oz (1939). Will and Alexandre discuss his influences, why he makes films about films, the importance of the theatrical experience, and collaborating with a group of wr…

What is it like to study for a videographic PhD? On today's show, Emily and Will are joined by Jemma Saunders and Cormac Donnelly, who are pursuing PhDs at the University of Birmingham and the University of Glasgow, respectively. We talk about what prompted them to pursue videographic PhDs, how their universities evaluate and think about such work,…

On today's episode, Will is joined by the critic and filmmaker Bianca Stigter, director of Three Minutes: A Lengthening. Bianca and Will discuss the film's origins as a video essay, the process of creating this documentary, the various videographic techniques employed, and much more. Depending on your location Three Minutes: A Lengthening is availa…

Today's episode features a conversation with Amanda Kim, director of the new documentary Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV. We discuss Paik's life and work, how Kim approached the project, archival documentary practice, the role of community in Paik's life and in the creation of this film, Paik's shaping of video art and today's internet culture…

Today's episode features a conversation with video essayists who participated in "Cary Grant: A Class Act," a collaboration between the podcast and the Cary Comes Home Festival, directed by Dr. Charlotte Crofts. Video essayists were asked to submit works that deal with class in relation to the life and/or work of Grant, who was born Archibald Leach…

Adam Tinius, known on YouTube as Entertain the Elk, joins the show to discuss his videographic origin story, life as a full-time video essayist, the self-doubt that comes with YouTubing, his creative process, and much more. He, Will, and Emily also discuss Adam's video, "How Movies Helped Me Process My Mother's Death," and "The Social Network - Ten…

Today's episode of The Video Essay Podcast features reflections from the organizers and participants of a recent symposium held in Hannover, Germany from November 2-4, 2022, "Videography: Art and Academia. Epistemological, Political and Pedagogical Potentials of Audiovisual Practices." Learn more about the symposium here. The episode begins with a …

Today's episode features the fifth conversation between Chloé Galibert-Laîné, Kevin B. Lee and Johannes Binotto, recorded as part of the final exhibition of Filmexplorer’s Video Essay Gallery, “Re-Inhabiting the Image.” Filmexplorer, a publication based in Switzerland, invited Chloé, Kevin, and Johannes to each curate video essays centered on vario…

Today's episode features the third of five conversations between Chloé Galibert-Laîné, Kevin B. Lee and Johannes Binotto, recorded as part of the third exhibition of Filmexplorer’s Video Essay Gallery, “(Dis)possessions.” Filmexplorer, a publication based in Switzerland, invited Chloé, Kevin, and Johannes to each curate video essays centered on var…

Today's show is the final part of the podcast's third anniversary celebration. Will shares clips from episodes twenty-one through thirty-one of the show. Topics include: [02:43] - Kendahl Cruver on viewing an old film in new ways [05:10] - Kevin B. Lee on the exploratory video essay [07:45] - Jemma Saunders on homework and the parametric approach […

Today's show is part two of the podcast's third anniversary celebration. Will shares clips from episodes eleven through twenty of The Video Essay Podcast. Topics include: [02:17] - Ariel Avissar on curating the Sight & Sound Poll [03:56] - Liz Greene on sound and the "audiovisual" essay [06:15] - Scout Tafoya on labor and The Unloved [10:02] - Leig…

The Video Essay Podcast turned three-years-old in July! On today's show, Will offers highlights from the first ten episodes of the show. Topics include: [02:15] - Catherine Grant on "working in the flow" [03:48] - Philip Brubaker on an early influence [05:20] - Grace Lee on drafting a script [06:59] - Jacob Swinney on the act of watching [08:17] - …

Today's episode features a conversation with Barbara Zecchi, a feminist film scholar, critic, festival curator, and video essayist. Barbara has published and lectured extensively on European and Latin American cinemas, women filmmakers, feminist film theory, adaptation theory, gender and aging studies, videographic criticism, and on the use of tech…

Today's episode features the second of five conversations between Chloé Galibert-Laîné, Kevin B. Lee and Johannes Binotto, recorded as part of the second exhibition of Filmexplorer’s Video Essay Gallery, “Online Affects”. Filmexplorer, a publication based in Switzerland, invited Chloé, Kevin, and Johannes to each curate video essays centered on var…

Today's episode features the first of five conversations between Chloé Galibert-Laîné, Kevin B. Lee and Johannes Binotto, recorded as part of the first exhibition of Filmexplorer’s Video Essay Gallery, “Home Positions”. Filmexplorer, a publication based in Switzerland, invited Chloé, Kevin, and Johannes to each curate video essays centered on vario…

Today's episode features a short conversation with Ariel Avissar, a lecturer, PhD student and Tisch Film School Scholar at Tel Aviv University, and the creator and curator of the ongoing TV Dictionary project. The premise of the project? Try to capture the essence of a TV series with only a single word. The task? Make a short video that pairs the d…

Today's episode of On Your Screen features a conversation with Professor Francesca Coppa, author of the new book Vidding: A History. We discuss the history of the form, the community of primarily women creators who pioneered vidding, online fan communities, the impact of technologies like the VCR, personal editing software and YouTube had on the fo…

Today's episode begins with perhaps the most important news in show history: Emily Su Bin Ko has joined The Video Essay Podcast as associate producer! The show starts with a conversation between Emily and Will and an introduction to Emily and her work. The episode also features a conversation with Jordan Schonig, a lecturer at SUNY Binghamton. Scho…

Today's episode features a conversation with Anthony Hon, the creator and curator of the popular Twitter account, Dancer on Film. We discuss Anthony's curatorial approach, how he thinks of his Twitter account as a rotating gallery, and his passion for the musical genre. Follow the account @DancerOnFilm. On Your Screen is a relatively new show dedic…

Today's episode features a conversation with Thomas Flight, one of the most popular and prolific video essayists currently working on YouTube. We discuss Thomas' origin story, his audience, and how he balances paying the bills as a full-time video essayist with his passion projects. We also discuss his video essay, "The Side of Scorsese We Don't Ta…

Today's episode features an interview with Maia, the YouTuber known as Broey Deschanel. Today's topics include Maia's introduction to video essays, her creative process, why YouTube is currently in a "magic moment" of virality, censorship and the YouTube algorithm, how and why to cite the work of other video essayists, why humor is funny, and much …

On Your Screen is the new monthly show about digital film culture. Today's episode features a conversation with Don McHoull, the creator of the popular Twitter account @SilentMovieGIFs. We discuss the history of the account, Don's curatorial approach, why the GIF is an ideal medium for the sharing of silent film, how content spreads on the internet…

Today's show features a conversation with Ian Garwood, senior lecturer in Film & Television Studies at the University of Glasgow, and one of the leading practitioners of the academic audiovisual essay. We discuss Ian's background, his creative process, Cary Grant, the role of voiceover in AV criticism, and his award-winning audiovisual monograph, I…

What is Film TikTok, or FilmTok? You've probably seen the videos, either on TikTok or other social media platforms, or perhaps you've seen Queline Meadow's great video essay on the subject. On today's episode of On Your Screen, Queline, also know as kikikrazed on YouTube, answers all the questions you may have about Film TikTok: How does it work? W…

Today's episode features a conversation with Dr. Tracy Cox-Stanton (Savannah College of Art & Design) and Dr. Allison de Fren (Occidental College), two leading videographic scholars who recently co-edited an issue of the online journal The Cine-Files dedicated to the scholarly video essay. Our conversation centers on the creation of the issue, what…

The second episode of On Your Screen is dedicated to Monographs, a video essay series on Asian cinema commissioned by the Asian Film Archive. Will sits down with Thong Kay Wee and Viknesh Kobinathan, who are programmers at the Asian Film Archive and the coordinators of Monographs, to discuss the series. Monographs will screen alongside Kevin B. Lee…

Terris Francis is an associate professor at the University of Indiana — Bloomington and director of the Black Film Center/Archive. On today's show, we discuss Terri's new book, Josephine Baker's Cinematic Prism. Terri and Will met in 2019 at the Scholarship in Sound & Image Workshop, where Terri worked with the films of Josephine Baker. We discuss …

For the first episode of On Your Screen, Will DiGravio chats with Michael Temple, the director of the Essay Film Festival and the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, about the 2021 Essay Film Festival. The festival will run online from 25 March to 3 April. Learn more here.

On today's show, Will sits down with John Gibbs, Head of the School of Arts & Communication Design and Professor of Film at the University of Reading, to discuss style-based criticism, his videographic work, and more. They discuss John's video essay, "‘Say, have you seen the Carioca?’," published as part of the AHRC/FAPESP-funded project, "Intermld…

Last year, listeners of The Video Essay Podcast were assigned the five videographic exercises developed for the Scholarship in Sound & Image Workshop as "homework." Listeners made more than 60 videos as a response to the homework assignments. Episode 23 features audio reflections from eight listeners who created videographic exercises: Jemma Saunde…

Today's show is (in part) dedicated to the 2020 Sight & Sound poll of the year's best video essays. Will is joined by the co-curators of the poll, Cydnii Wilde Harris, Grace Lee, and Ariel Avissar to discuss what it was like putting the poll together in the year of quarantine. The episode also features commentary from Oswald Iten, Kevin B. Lee, Sha…

Today's episode begins with a special request from Will to the podcast's listeners. The episode features the audio from "The Journeys of Cary Grant: An Audiovisual Celebration," a partnership between the Cary Comes Home Festival and The Video Essay Podcast. In July 2020, we put out a call for video essays related to the theme of "journeys," not onl…

Will sits down with Nelson Carvajal, a two-time Webby award nominated video artist and television producer. Nelson is also the founder of the website Free Cinema Now. We discuss his video essay/mashup, "If Pride Rock Could Talk" and a supercut by Nicolas Longinotti, "Martin Scorsese: Hands." Music via: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mela/Mela_t…

"Seen & Heard: Selections from the Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlist" was a live event recorded as part of the Open City Documentary Festival on September 12, 2020. The event was co-moderated by Cydnii Wilde Harris, Kevin B. Lee, and Will DiGravio, and featured interviews with Jazmin Jones, Professor Flowers, Nzingha Kendall, and Cydnii. Lear…

Cydnii Wilde Harris joins the show to discuss her video essay, "Cotton — The Fabric of Genocide." Cydnii and Will also discuss Ian Garwood's "SLAP THAT BASS Zoomed" and Jace Alexander Casey's "New Forms of Racism in the Post-Cinematic Dispositif." They also talk about what it's like to be a student of videographic criticism and how video essays hav…

Will is joined by his former teachers and mentors, Jason Mittell and Christian Keathley, who are professors at Middlebury College, two of the co-founders of [in]Transition, co-conveners of the Scholarship in Sound & Image Workshop, and leading practitioners and teachers of the academic video essay. Our conversation centers on their collaborations, …

We are finally back! Today's episode is the first of our new roundtable series, which will center on topics related to all aspects of video essays. Will is joined today by Michael Leader of BBC’s Inside Cinema, Adam Woodward of Little White Lies, and Joost Broeren of Filmkrant. We discuss what it's like to edit publications that publish videographi…

Shannon Strucci joins the show to discuss life as a YouTube video essayist, developing one's own video essay aesthetic, the relationship between video essay making and podcasting, and more! We also discuss Shannon's epic video essay "Fake Friends Episode 2: parasocial hell" and Harry S. Plinkett’s (Mike Stoklasa) review of Star Wars Episode I: Phan…

On today's show Will sits down with journalist, programmer, and video essayist Leigh Singer. We discuss his most recent essay, “The Movies Behind Your Favorite GIFS” and kogonada’s 2014 video essay, “Linklater // On Cinema & Time.” Listeners are also given their next homework assignment: videographic epigraphs. Music via: https://freemusicarchive.o…

We are finally back! On today’s show, Will sits down with Scout Tafoya, aka Honors Zombie. Scout is a prolific video essayist and critic, who regularly contributes to RogerEbert.com among other publications. We dive deep into his essay film Beata Virgo Viscera and “Deep Focus: Mike Figgis’ STORMY MONDAY, as reviewed by Roger Ebert,” a video essay e…

Liz Green is a scholar, sound professional, and video essayist. On today's show, she and Will discuss her essay, "Do it for Van Gogh: Detecting and Perverting the Audience Position in David Lynch's Blue Velvet." They also discuss Tracy Cox-Stanton's recently released video essay, "Gesture in A Woman Under the Influence." Music via: https://freemusi…