The Video Essay Podcast

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, and more. Nam June Paik: Moo...

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 part...

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....

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 organ...

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...

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: "Doe...

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 [11:54] - Estrella Sendra on introducing students t...

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] - Leigh Singer on discovery and audience [11:52] - S...

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] - Adrian Martin on collaboration [10:51] - Jennifer...

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 2...

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 availabl...

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 Position s”. 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 o...

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 o...

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...

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. Schonig's work is particularly interesting...

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 digita...

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 fello...

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 E...

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...

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 Indepen...

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?...

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 f...

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...

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 boo...

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.