Tessera

ADAPTIVE FORMS is a “videographic book” by Gregory Brophy and Shawn Malley that contains several fascinating video essays. They combine sharp analysis, deft editing and compelling storytelling. One of the standouts is OUR/OWN/DEVICES, a mash-up montage that draws on the tradition of fan vids.

4. Splice: Our/Own/Devices

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LATENT HEAT exposes the ecological impact of data centers using their own (technical) videos. Roc Albalat reclaims corporate imagery through appropriation and remix, and in doing so demonstrates the activist potential of the video essay form. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

Latent Heat by Roc Albalat

The video essay reinterprets technical images from the cooling industry, transforming them from tools of efficiency into critical lenses. It helps reveal how data center heat management relates to bro...

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Since @criterion.bsky.social just released a new 4K restoration of 12 Angry Men, it seems like a good time to plug 12 SILENT MEN. My video essay turns that talky talkie into a silent movie. Because silence is golden when you want to highlight Sidney Lumet’s visual direction and blocking.

12 Silent Men

Alfred Hitchcock was an advocate of visual storytelling. “Pure cinema” is what he called it. He wasn’t keen on movies that relied heavily on dialogue: Hitchcock cheekily referred to them as “photograp...

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ECHOING BOOM foregoes Blade Runner’s fantastic visuals to focus on its sounds. The spare soundscape becomes a counterpoint to the film’s dense visuals, argues this video essay by Marius Øfsti, published in 16:9 filmtidsskrift.

[Echoing Boom]: The sounds of spaces in Blade Runner

Blade Runner is rightly hearalded for its layered visuals and visionary design. Yet, when I revisited it recently I was struck by it’s sounds and how they connect to themes from the source novel and t...

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In his own words. A CLASS WITH JOAQUIM JORDÀ uses archival interviews with the Catalan filmmaker to piece together a videographic lecture. The result is a deft, thought-provoking video essay by @nuriacancela.bsky.social and Samantha da Silva Diefenthaeler. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

A Class With Joaquim Jordà by Nuria Cancela and Samantha da Silva Diefenthaeler

“A Class with Joaquim Jordà” approaches the teaching facet of Catalan documentary filmmaker Joaquim Jordà. The video essay is structured around Jordà’s voice-over, drawn from different documentaries a...

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THE HOLES WE LEFT BEHIND views the coming-of-age film Breaking Away through an industrial lens. Jacob Smith uses archival footage of a stone carver who appeared as an extra to open up a fresh way of reading Peter Yates' film. The result is a remarkable video essay that "extracts" new insights.

The Holes We Left Behind

This video essay has been published in Movie: a journal of criticism issue 12, and an accompanying statement can be read here.

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Benedetta Andreasi sings the praises of an Italian talkshow host in PHENOMENOLOGY OF MARCO DAMILANO. Through inventive visuals, her video essay explores the source of his appeal. Published on @intransition.bsky.social

Phenomenology of Marco Damilano by Benedetta Andreasi

"Phenomenology of Marco Damilano" is a study on how Damilano’s talk show Il Cavallo e la Torre mediates displacement and humanitarian crises through reassuring televisual forms. By destabilizing its a...

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The work of script supervisor Penny Eyles takes center stage in the video essay MAKING FICTION FLOW. Combining oral testimony with well-chosen and thoughtfully arranged film excerpts, @feministbell.bsky.social and @filmstudiesff.bsky.social give voice and visuals to her underappreciated labor.

MAKING FICTION FLOW

A video essay on film continuity and the life and work of script supervisor Penny Eyles. Published with an accompanying authors' statement in the scholarly journal MOVIE: A Journal of Film Criticism i...

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In TO SEE YOU (IS TO LOVE YOU) – NOVAK VARIATIONS, two Hitchcock masterpieces are joined and conjoined with a film of lesser stature. John Gibbs' great video essay turns the mash-up format into a tool for cinematic emancipation.

To see you (is to love you) – Novak variations

Published in Research in Film & History where you can read a creator's statement. Official Selection Marienbad Film Festival 2025 Official Selection Adelio Ferrero Award 2025 Nominee: Best Experimenta...

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Seductive and destructive, oil takes many forms. In TIMELINE DRIPPING, Celia Sainz contrasts its glossy allure in music videos with its devastation in news footage. The result is an unsettling video essay about our "petromodernity." Published by @intransition.bsky.social

Timeline Dripping by Celia Sainz

This video interrogates the contradictory aesthetics of oil using music videos and footage of oil-spill catastrophes to examine how petroleum can hold both exuberance and catastrophe in our lives and ...

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The video essay MOMENTS OF INTEGRATION is a close reading of Robert Wise’s noirish Odds Against Tomorrow. Henry Rownd goes through the movie’s mise-en-scène with a fine comb, finding a wealth of overlaps and visual echoes.

Moments of Integration: A Close Analysis of Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise, 1959)

Published in Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, Issue 12 (2025) https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/film/movie/contents/rownd._a_close_analysis_of_odds_against_tomorrow.pdf Author: Henry Rownd H...

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The Coens have as keen an ear for sound as they do an eye for images. In his video essay TALES TOLD IN TUNES, Martin Hall argues that the brothers do more than use diegetic folk songs. Their filmmaking, he suggests, displays characteristics of folk music. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

Tales Told in Tunes by Martin Hall

This video essay examines the films of the Coen Brothers, arguing that their distinctive and compelling approach to filmmaking reflects the essence of creating folk music. It posits that the Coen Brot...

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The supercut may be a simple format, but in the right hands it still packs a punch. Made for @filmkrant.bsky.social, WILDER MACHINE strings together shots and sounds from Billy Wilder's filmography to reveal his fascination with mechanics and machines, rhythm and repetition.

The Thinking Machine #103: Wilder Machine

On so many levels, Billy Wilder’s films are obsessed with mechanics and machines – the precisely structured scripts he co-wrote have even been described as ‘narrative machines’ in their own right. On ...

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THE RED SHOES: A DESKTOP FAIRY TALE is a love letter to Powell and Pressburger’s film. In her well-crafted video essay, @veronikahanakova.bsky.social attempts to capture the elusive red color of the titular footwear. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

The Red Shoes by Veronika Hanáková

“The Red Shoes: A Desktop Fairy Tale” explores the color red in Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell’s 1948 film. Though shaped by shifting materials and technologies, red remains potent and spellbin...

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Mariana Schwartz looks beyond (and behind) the characters in Kubrick’s films. Her supercut compiles the colors and textures, patterns and artworks that frame them. WHAT’S BEHIND THE KUBRICK CHARACTERS? was published by Tecmerin.

What's behind the Kubrick characters. Mariana Schwartz

This is "What's behind the Kubrick characters. Mariana Schwartz" by JOURNAL OF AUDIOVISUAL ESSAYS on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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PLAYING WITH MEDIATION is a fascinating video essay about a fascinating video game. Clémence Folléa documents her playthrough of Season: A Letter to the Future, a game that invites players to document a world on the verge of disappearing. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

Playing with Mediation by Clemence Follea

This is "Playing with Mediation by Clemence Follea" by Open Library of Humanities on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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Here's a challenge: make a 60-second micro-essay about... video essays. The latest collaborative project from @theessaylibrary.com goes meta, turning the format’s attention back on itself. Submissions are open until September 21, 2026 at 9:00 AM.

The Essay Library

A space for creating and discussing video essays.

theessaylibrary.com

The Journal of Embodied Research invites videographic submissions for an issue on how racism, digital technologies, and Asian Americanness are lived, felt, and contested through dance and embodied research. Abstracts are due November 15. Read the call here: tinyurl.com/JER-cfp

CFP: Racing After Technology

CALL FOR PROPOSALS Racing After Technology: Asian American Digital Choreographies and Embodied Research in an Anti-Black World Guest Editor: Al Evangelista, Oberlin College The Journal of Embodied Res...

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APPARATUS has a CFP for a video essay special issue with the title "Resurfacing in the Cut: Videographic Explorations in East Central European Cinemas and Visual Cultures." Abstracts are due October 1, full submissions in March 31, 2027. Read the call here: tinyurl.com/apparatus-cfp