The Video Essay Podcast

In this podcast, they discuss the 2020 Sight & Sound poll of the year's best video essays, the process of curating the poll, the power and potential of video essays in provoking deeper engagement, exploring subjective experiences through the video essay form, cross-media publishing and critical engagement, the practicality and utility of video essays, and the changing landscape of academic research. They also delve into the upcoming revisions and mentorship in the innovative new master's program in video essaying at Merz Akademie in Stuttgart, Germany.

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

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_two/MELA_-_Mela_Two_-_05_Brain_Power

"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. Learn more at www.thevideoessay.com/blacklivesmatter. Music via: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mela/Mela_two/MELA_-_Mela_Two_-_05_Brain_Power

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 have shaped their own scholarly pursuits. Music via: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mela/Mela_two/MELA_-_Mela_Two_-_05_Brain_Power

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, the history and practice of the workshop, aka "video camp," and features an in-depth discussion of the videographic exercises that listeners have been making in recent weeks. Listeners are assigned their final (for now) videographic assignment: abstract trailers. Music via: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mela/Mela_two/MELA_-_Mela_Two_-_05_Brain_Power

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 videographic work, tips for freelance video essayists, what video essays bring to a publication, and more! Listeners are also assigned the penultimate videographic exercise homework: the voiceover. Music via: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mela/Mela_two/MELA_-_Mela_Two_-_05_Brain_Power

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: Phantom Menace, a seven part video produced by Red Letter Media. Listeners are assigned new homework: multi-screen videos. Music via: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mela/Mela_two/MELA_-_Mela_Two_-_05_Brain_Power

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.org/music/Mela/Mela_two/MELA_-_Mela_Two_-_05_Brain_Power

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 edited by Matt Zoller Seitz, narrated by Kim Morgan, and based on a review by Ebert. Music via: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mela/Mela_two/MELA_-_Mela_Two_-_05_Brain_Power