The Video Essay Podcast

Follow the show on ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠. Learn more at the pod's ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠. Get the ⁠⁠⁠free newsletter⁠⁠⁠.Will DiGravio hosted and produced this episode. Editing by Elsa Despoix, Evelyn Kreutzer, and Will DiGravio. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. ⁠⁠⁠Music by Ketsa.

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 features the work of thirty contributors working on "women horror filmmakers in non-anglophone countries, with a particular focus on filmmakers from the Global Majority." Alison and Will discuss the origins of the project, the contributors and mentors who worked on DWGHFH, how the video essays exist into existing scholarship on women horror filmmakers, and much more. 

Support the podcast on ⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠. Follow the show on ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠. Learn more at the pod's ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠. Get the ⁠⁠⁠free newsletter⁠⁠⁠. Subscribe on ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

Will DiGravio hosted, edited and produced this episode. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. ⁠⁠⁠Music by Ketsa⁠⁠⁠: "Live It," "Anvil," and "Refraining."

In this conversation, Kevin talks with Evelyn about her picks for the 2023 survey of the year's best video essays by Sight & Sound magazine. Evelyn's selections serve as an entry point for the two to discuss the broader themes of their research project.

Follow the show on ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠. Learn more at the pod's ⁠⁠website⁠⁠. Get the ⁠⁠free newsletter⁠⁠.

Will DiGravio hosted and produced this episode. Editing by Kevin B. Lee and Will DiGravio. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. ⁠⁠Music by Ketsa.

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 voiceover narration, treating his own films as archival images, and the unique ways that cinema is able to tell stories of ghosts. Learn more about the film and when it might be screening near you, here.

Support the podcast on ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠. Follow the show on ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠. Learn more at the pod's ⁠⁠website⁠⁠. Get the ⁠⁠free newsletter⁠⁠. Subscribe on ⁠YouTube⁠.

Will DiGravio hosted, edited and produced this episode. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. ⁠⁠Music by Ketsa⁠⁠: "Live It," "Anvil," and "Refraining."

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.

This episode is the first in an ongoing collaboration between The Video Essay Podcast and Kevin B. Lee, who, in his role as the Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema at USI University of Lugano, is leading a three-year research project on video essays with Johannes Binotto and Evelyn Kreutzer, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Read Kevin's columns for Sight & Sound here.

Support the podcast on ⁠Patreon⁠. Follow the show on ⁠Twitter⁠. Learn more at the pod's ⁠website⁠. Get the ⁠free newsletter⁠.

Will DiGravio hosted and produced this episode. Editing by Kevin B. Lee and Will DiGravio. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. ⁠Music by Ketsa⁠: "Live It," "Anvil," and "Refraining."

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 Catherine herself. Watch and read more about the special issue here.

Support the podcast on ⁠Patreon⁠. Follow the show on ⁠Twitter⁠. Learn more at the pod's ⁠website⁠. Get the ⁠free newsletter⁠. Subscribe on YouTube.

Will DiGravio hosted and produced this episode. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. ⁠Music by Ketsa⁠: "Live It," "Anvil," and "Refraining."

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 a moving poem by Desirée de Jesús that pairs A Raisin in the Sun (1961) with Langston Hughes's 1951 poem "Harlem."

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

Will DiGravio hosted and produced this episode. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. Music by Ketsa: "Live It," "Anvil," and "Refraining."

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 Spit)," and Kathleen Loock's "Reproductive Futurism and the Politics of the Sequel." 

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

Will DiGravio hosted and produced this episode. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer, and also co-hosted and edited this episode. Music by Ketsa: "Live It," "Anvil," and "Refraining."

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 writers and filmmakers to bring this work to the screen. Lynch/Oz debuts in New York City on June 2, 2023 at the IFC Center. Learn more here.

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

Will DiGravio hosted, produced and edited this episode. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. Music by Ketsa: "Live It," "Anvil," and "Refraining."

Links to learn more: Jemma's Vimeo and Twitter. Cormac's Vimeo and Twitter. Learn more about the B-Film Creative Practice Colloquium here. Check out Cormac's Deformative Sound Lab.

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

Will DiGravio hosted, produced and edited this episode. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. Music by Ketsa: "Live It," "Anvil," and "Refraining."

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

Will DiGravio hosted, produced and edited this episode. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. Music by Ketsa: "Live It," "Anvil," and "Refraining."

Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV debuts at Film Form in New York City on March 24, 2023. Learn more here. And learn more about the Museum of Modern Art's new exhibition, Signals: How Video Transformed the World, which includes a selection of works streaming online, here. Stream works by Nam June Paik via Internet Archive, here.

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

Will DiGravio is the host and producer of The Video Essay Podcast, and the editor of this episode. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer.

Music via Free Music Archive: "Won't Be Stoppin" by Ketsa. And Nam June Paik's Global Groove (1973).

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 in Bristol, England. The video essayists who participated are: Lara Callaghan, Kendahl Cruver, Will DiGravio (me), Wickham Flannagan, Dan O'Brien, and Stella Parker. You can watch all of the videos here. And learn more about the Cary Comes Home Festival here. Watch our 2020 conversation and videos, "The Journeys of Cary Grant," here. 

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

Will DiGravio is the host and producer of The Video Essay Podcast, and the editor of this episode. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer.

Music via Free Music Archive: "Won't Be Stoppin" and "15 Waiting-Room" by Ketsa.

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 Years Later" by The Royal Ocean Film Society.

[02:00] - Adam's origin story and the early days of Entertain the Elk

[24:22] - Entertain the Elk's Ongoing "The Day X Died" / "The Day X Was Born" Series

[34:30] - Finding the space for more experimental videos

[38:50] - Working with writers to draft scripts

[47:00] - "How Movies Helped Me Process My Mother's Death"

[55:00] - "The Social Network - Ten Years Later"

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

Will DiGravio is the host and producer of The Video Essay Podcast. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer and the editor of this episode.

Music via Free Music Archive: "Won't Be Stoppin" and "15 Waiting-Room" by Ketsa.

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 roundtable discussion between the symposium organizers -- Anna-Sophie Philippi,  Maike Reinerth, Kathleen Loock, and Evelyn Kreutzer -- and is then followed by short reflections from symposium participants on the theme of openness. Specifically, participants were asked to "reflect on the term 'openness', as it emerged prominently in Hannover, such as in its relation to the local and the global, our sense of community and network, and the challenges and potentials that are associated with it."

[03:12] -- Discussion between Anna-Sophie Philippi (Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf) ,  Maike Reinerth (Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf) , Kathleen Loock (Leibniz University Hannover) , and Evelyn Kreutzer (Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf)

Reflections on Openness 
[22:15] -- Annalisa Pellino (IULM University, Milan)
[24:20] -- Alan O'Leary (Aarhus University)
[27:58] -- Barbara Zecchi (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
[31:43] -- Johannes Binotto (University of Zurich)
[34:30] -- Cormac Donnelly (University of Glasgow) 
[36:53] -- Oswald Iten (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts)
[41:25] -- Ariane Hudelet (Université de Paris)
[44:27] -- Emily Dreyfus (Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf)
[45:41] -- Kristina Brüning (The University of Texas at Austin) 
[47:22] -- Kevin B. Lee (Università della Svizzera italiana)
[52:09] -- Maria Hofmann (University of Minnesota)

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

The video essay podcasted is hosted, produced, and edited by Will DiGravio. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer.

Music via Free Music Archive: "Won't Be Stoppin" and "15 Waiting-Room" by Ketsa.

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 various themes. Exhibition five will be available to watch on the Filmexplorer website until November 30, 2022.

Episode topics include: "A video essay can express a form of embodiment that does not require the image of the body. The last selection of video essays lets emerge sensuality, where the sense of touching seems to prevail and challenge the image layer. Is this a way to re-inhabit the image? Does the haptic feature of film recall the physical dimension of early cinema?"

A special thanks to the Filmexplorer team, Giuseppe Di Salvatore and Ruth Baettig, for this collaboration.

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

This show is hosted, produced, and edited by Will DiGravio. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer.

Music via Free Music Archive: [here] and [here].

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 various themes.

Episode topics include: "Does the viewer possess the film or does the film possess the viewer? Is the viewer’s experience of dispossession nothing but the dissociation that is generated by film editing? Does this dissociation amount to the consciousness of using a medium??"

A special thanks to the Filmexplorer team, Giuseppe Di Salvatore and Ruth Baettig, for this collaboration.

Listen to Episode One here and Episode Two here.

[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
[11:54] - Estrella Sendra on introducing students to video essays
[15:55] - John Gibbs on blending media and mind-mapping
[18:44] - Doug Pye on language and criticism
[23:08] - Terri Francis on discovery
[26:48] - Tracy Cox-Stanton on the scholarly video essay
[29:44] - Allison De Fren on the video essay and knowledge
[32:51] - Ian Garwood on voiceover
[34:28] - Broey Deschanel on YouTube algorithms and censorship
[37:35] - Thomas Flight on workflow and sustainability
[39:50] - Jordan Schonig on bringing scholarship to YouTube
[42:18] - Ariel Avissar on TV Dictionary
[46:00] - Barbara Zecchi on archival voids

Learn more about our 2022 call for Cary Grant videos here. 

Watch parts one and two below! This episode was created as part of Will's preparation for an upcoming talk he is giving at "Theory & Practice of the Video-Essay: An International Conference on Videographic Criticism" later this week at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

This show is hosted, produced, and edited by Will DiGravio. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. Music via Free Music Archive.

Be on the lookout for part three and watch part one here. This episode was created as part of Will's preparation for an upcoming talk he is giving at "Theory & Practice of the Video-Essay: An International Conference on Videographic Criticism" later this month at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

This show is hosted, produced, and edited by Will DiGravio. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. Music via Free Music Archive.

Be on the lookout for parts two and three! This episode was created as part of Will's preparation for an upcoming talk he is giving at "Theory & Practice of the Video-Essay: An International Conference on Videographic Criticism" later this month at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

This show is hosted, produced, and edited by Will DiGravio. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. Music via Free Music Archive.

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 technology in the humanities. Since 2016 she has served as Associate Member of The Film Academy of Spain (Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España). 

Will and Emily chat with Barbara about a number of topics, including her background and videographic origin story, the GynoCine Project, the "accented" video essay, and several of Barbara's own works. We focus specifically on Barbara's recent video, "Filling (Feeling) the Archival Void: the case of Helena Cortesina’s Flor de España." Barbara, who is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, also discusses the upcoming conference, "Theory and Practice of the Video-Essay: an International Conference on Videographic Criticism." 

[2:03] - Barbara's Origin Story 

[4:55] - Artists and video essayists who influenced Barbara's own work 

[9:20] - Discussion of Barbara's early videographic and other moving image works 

[16:18] - The GynoCine Project

[19:55] - Videographic Criticism at UMass

[23:15] - The Accented Video Essay

[37:25] - "Filling (Feeling) the Archival Void: the case of Helena Cortesina’s Flor de España"

[1:10:00] - A Videographic Book? 

[1:11:30] - ""Theory and Practice of the Video-Essay: an International Conference on Videographic Criticism." 

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

Music access via Free Music Archive here and here.

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 various themes. This second exhibition is available on the Filmexplorer website until July 16, 2022.

Works discussed include: 

Distant Feeling(s) #9 by Annie Abrahams and Daniel Pinheiro

One Thousand and One Attempts to Be an Ocean by Wang Yuyan

How to Perform Teaching During a Pandemic Spring Session, 2020: GENDER STUDIES, Rain & Cats Cut by Dayna McLeod

Episode topics include: "Are affects more than just the expression of pure subjectivity? What happens when we do not know how to watch? What do watching experimental films and watching video essays have in common? How should we understand the performance of watching?"

A special thanks to the Filmexplorer team, Giuseppe Di Salvatore and Ruth Baettig, for this collaboration.

Listen to the first episode, on "Home Positions," here.

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

This show is hosted, produced, and edited by Will DiGravio. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer.

Music via Free Music Archive: [here] and [here].

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 various themes. This first exhibition is available on the Filmexplorer website until June 12, 2022. 

Episode topics include: "home as the uncanny place of defamiliarization, discomfort in embodiment and memory, trusting the experimental and amateur approach as revelatory, video essay as post-cinematic experience, video-essay as opening the potentialities of cinema, video essay as another form of temporality and the role of community in defining video essay."

A special thanks to the Filmexplorer team, Giuseppe Di Salvatore and Ruth Baettig, for this collaboration. 

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

This show is hosted, produced, and edited by Will DiGravio. Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer.

Music via Free Music Archive: [here] and [here].

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 dictionary definition(s) of that work with a clip or clips from a single series. 

[3:20] - The origins of TV Dictionary 

[7:48] - Inviting new (and experienced) video essayists to join the project

[10:28] - Why so little academic videographic criticism about TV? 

[14:30] - Who is contributing to the project? 

[15:29] - What kinds of videos are being made? 

[18:25] - How have creators responded to the process of making for the project? 

[20:08] - Collaboration with the Critical Studies in Television blog [more here]  

[25:13] - How to contribute to TV Dictionary 

Be sure to check out the ongoing series of blog posts on the CST blog:

Post 1 by Ariel; Post 2 by Dan O'Brien; Post 3 by Tomer Nechushtan

And also learn more about the upcoming roundtable dedicated to the project at the upcoming CST online slow conference. The roundtable will be held at 3:15 - 4:45 pm BST and feature Libertad Gills, Catherine Grant, Evelyn Kreutzer, Johannes Binotto, Ariel Avissar and Jason Mittell. More here.

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

This show is hosted, produced, and edited by Will DiGravio. 

Emily Su Bin Ko is the show's associate producer. 

Music via Free Music Archive: [here] and [here]. 

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 form, and much more. Read and learn more about the FREE, open-access book here.

[1:34] - Francesca's background and scholarly interests

[8:45] - What is a vid? 

[13:20] - How do vidders convey the experience of watching? 

[18:30] - How does vidding differ and engage with other critical modes? 

[24:00] - The role various technologies have played in the history of vidding, and in particular the VCR

[34:30] - The work of women creators and the ways vidding interacts with and upends "traditional" film culture

[38:00] - The significance of vidding conventions

[43:29] - What is a dancing vid? 

[47:00] - How Francesca curated vids for the book

[56:00] - Francesca's take on videographic criticism, the influence of vidding, and the role of platforms

[1:09:00] - How vidders engage with remix culture and issues of piracy 

[1:14:00] - Francesca's advocacy for fair use legislation 

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

A special thanks to the show's associate producer, Emily Su Bin Ko. 

The episode also features a conversation with Jordan Schonig, a lecturer at SUNY Binghamton. Schonig's work is particularly interesting in the ways it bridges divides between academic and popular videographic criticism. In 2020, Schonig founded the YouTube channel, "Film & Media Studies with Jordan Schonig," which features lecture-style videos that sometime dip into the essayistic to explore concepts in Film and Media Studies.

Schonig has also published academic video essays and is the author of the new book from Oxford University Press, The Shape of Motion: Cinema and the Aesthetics of Movement, which features audiovisual criticism in addition to the written text. We discuss his video, "The 'Wind in the Trees' from Early Cinema to Pixar," and Grace Lee's "What Isn't a Video Essay?"

0:00 - Introducing Emily Su Bin Ko

18:50 - Jordan Schonig's Origin Story 

21:44 - A Brief Encounter

27:23 - Video Camp & Working With Pretty Images

35:55 - Creating Videographic Criticism as an Early Career Researcher

41:06 - Starting a YouTube Channel

53:56 – "Lev Manovich's 'What is Digital Cinema' and 'Compositing'"

1:02:47 – Deciding Whether to Upload a Work to Vimeo 

1:06:55 – "The 'Wind in the Trees' from Early Cinema to Pixar"

1:21:20 - Zooming in On the Marginal

1:25:40 - "What Isn't a Video Essay?"

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

Music access via Free Music Archive here and here.

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 dedicated to exploring various aspects of digital film culture. The show is a companion to The Video Essay Podcast. Learn more via the show's website.

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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 Talk About," and a fantastic video essay by fellow YouTuber, Jacob Geller, "The Game That Won't Let You See All Of It." 

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

Music access via Free Music Archive here and here.

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 more. We also discuss Maia's video "The Liberal Escapism of Bridgerton" and BREADSWORD's 2017 video, "Treasure Planet - Disney's Biggest Mistake."

1. Maia's "origin story" and early influences, why YouTube?, the accessibility of YouTube, why it's the best time to go viral on YouTube [1:39 - 8:01]

2. The YouTube algorithm, what it censors, and how to navigate copyright, the art of the thumbnail, best practices for titling a video [8:01 - 19:46]

3. How and why to cite other video essayists and the way Maia cites and builds upon her own past work [19:47 - 27:04]

4. "The Liberal Escapism of Bridgerton," when and why Maia appears on camera, balancing the correct number of sources, humor and not taking oneself too seriously [27:04 - 48:31]

5. "Treasure Planet - Disney's Biggest Mistake," the art of sourcing and sequencing clips, how Maia writes her scripts, using active language in voiceover, why the video essay? [48:31 - end]

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Music access via Free Music Archive here and here. 

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, and how GIFs are helping to bring silent cinema to new audiences in the 21st century. Don also talks about his Reddit page and the viral compilation videos he has made about silent cinema on YouTube.

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter.

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, Indy Vinyl: Records in American Independent Cinema: 1987 to 2019. Will and Ian also discuss "My Mulholland," a video essay by Jessica McGoff.

Support the podcast on Patreon. Follow the show on Twitter. Learn more at the pod's website. Get the free newsletter, Notes on Videographic Criticism.

Music via: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mela/Mela_two/MELA_-_Mela_Two_-_05_Brain_Power

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? What kinds of videos can you find on the platform? What does Film TikTok mean for the future of film criticism and fandom? If you're looking for a beginners guide to the platform, this conversation is for you.

Want to learn more about Film TikTok? Check out Episode 10 of The Video Essay Podcast, which features a conversation with Charlie Shackleton about his video essay, "Criticism in the Age of TikTok." 

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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 they hope the issue contributes to the field's understanding of the scholarly video essay, and how the scholarly video essay differs from other forms of videographic criticism.

The episode also features the first part of a conversation between host Will DiGravio and Shant Bayramian, a Netherlands-based video essayist who runs the YouTube channel, The Audiovisual Essayist. The conversation was published in three parts and is entitled, "The Video Essay: What Do New Practitioners Think?" All three parts can be found on Shant's YouTube page.

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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’s video essay "Explosive Paradox" online via the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art until May 2, 2021. Stream the program here. To learn more about the program, and to get in touch with Viknesh and Kay Wee about screening Monographs at your festival or venue, visit the Asian Film Archive website.

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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 how videographic criticism influenced the book and changed Terri's relationship with Baker and her research.

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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, "Intermldia: Towards an Intermedial History of Brazilian Cinema." John and Will also talk about Liz Greene's "The Elephant Man's Sound, Tracked" and "The Strange Streets of a Strange City: The Ambersons Montage" by Patrick Keating.

Douglas Pye also joins the show to discuss his new edited collection, V.F. Perkins on Movies: Collected Shorter Film Criticism, from Wayne State University Press. Doug and Will discuss the work of Perkins, how it relates to videographic criticism, and more.

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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 Saunders, Cormac Donnelly, Roberto Carlos Ortiz, Charlotte Crofts, Alan O'Leary, Ben Creech, Max Tohline, and Ariel Avissar. Will also talks with Dr. Estrella Sendra, an academic based at the University of London and the University of Southampton, and Bartolomeo Meletti, the Education and Research Executive of Learning on Screen. Estrella and Bart are the team behind the "Introductory Guide to Video Essays," a brilliant new resource published by Learning on Screen.

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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, Shannon Strucci, Thomas Flight, and Scout Tafoya, who provide short audio reflections that expand upon their own selections in the year's poll. Finally, Will talks with Kevin B. Lee about an innovate new master's program he is starting at Merz Akademie in Stuttgart, Germany. Kevin talks about his plans for the program and the future of video essays.

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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 only in terms of geography, place, space and physical travels (both real life and on film), but also in terms of psychological journeys: voyages of identity, self-discovery and self-invention. On November 20, 2020, seven essayists joined Festival Director Charlotte Crofts and Will for a live conversation as part of the Cary Comes Home Festival to discuss the work they made for the celebration: Ian Magor, Anna Marin, Kendahl Cruver, Cormac Donnelly, Roberto Carlos Ortiz, Ian Garwood, and Philip Brubaker. The videos can be watched at www.thevideoessay.com/carygrant. 

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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."

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