# Videographic Scholarship [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_essay) ( 2010s–present ) ## Description Videographic and audiovisual film criticism, the video essay, and the academic legitimacy of videographic research — the use of moving-image composition itself (rather than prose alone) as a mode of film-studies argument, and the ongoing debate over its scholarly status relative to text-based criticism. ## Key Tags #videographic-scholarship #video-essay ## Essential Works - [[The Videographic Essay]] - Christian Keathley, Jason Mittell, Catherine Grant, Eric Faden, and Kevin B. Lee, *The Videographic Essay: Criticism in Sound & Image*, 2nd ed., Caboose, 2019 — core methodological text for the field - Bean, Jennifer M. "Introduction: Feeling Videographic Criticism." *Feminist Media Histories* 9, no. 4 (2023): 1–13. - Introduces the *Feminist Media Histories* special issue this page's list draws from - Grant, Catherine. "How Long Is a Piece of String? On the Practice, Scope and Value of Videographic Film Studies and Criticism." 2014. - Foundational statement on videographic method by one of the field's leading practitioners ## Details ### Videographic Resources - [Screen Stars Dictionary](https://tecmerin.uc3m.es/project/screen-stars-dictionary/?lang=en), in *Tecmerin: Journal of Audiovisual Essays* - [TV Dictionary](https://vimeo.com/showcase/8660446), hosted on Vimeo, organized and curated by Ariel Avissar ### Sight and Sound Best Video Essays [2024](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/best-video-essays-2024): Barbara Zecchi, "[The Rhythms of Rage: From Solitude to Solidarity](https://vimeo.com/922779200)"; Lily Ford, "[Light Hands](https://vimeo.com/921996906)"; Occitane Lacurie, "[xena's body (a menstrual auto-investigation using an iphone)](https://vimeo.com/879454111)"; Occitane Lacurie, "[Ordinatrices: About the Negative Spaces of Early Computing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-FwBeohmfo)"; Alison Peirse, "[Knit One, Stab Two](https://vimeo.com/1001721979)". Also: [2023](https://www.bfi.org.uk/polls/best-video-essays-2023), [2022](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/best-video-essays-2022), [2021](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/best-video-essays-2021). ### Video Essayists [Adrian Martin](https://vimeo.com/regularlovers), [Allison de Fren](https://mediacommons.org/user/4141), [Ariel Avissar](https://www.arielavissar.work/), [Barbara Zecchi](https://vimeo.com/barbarazecchi), [Catherine Grant](https://vimeo.com/filmstudiesff), [Cristina Álvarez López](https://mediacommons.org/user/3407), [Cydnii Wilde Harris](https://vimeo.com/cydniiwildeharris), David Verdeure, [Dayna McLeod](https://daynarama.com/category/video-essays), [Drew Morton](https://vimeo.com/user15915571), [Erlend Lavik](https://vimeo.com/user11123404), [Evelyn Kreutzer](https://vimeo.com/evelynkreutzer), [Ian Garwood](https://vimeo.com/user18948906), [Jaap Kooijman](https://vimeo.com/user41120367), [Johannes Binotto](https://vimeo.com/entstellungen), [Katie Bird](https://vimeo.com/katiebird), [Kevin B. Lee](https://vimeo.com/kevinblee), [Kogonada](https://kogonada.com/), [Leigh Singer](http://www.leighsinger.com/film-and-video/video-essays/), [Liz Greene](https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=9Cke7rsAAAAJ&hl=en), [Luís Azevedo](https://www.youtube.com/@TheAtoZReviewBlog/videos), Miklós Kiss, [Occitane Lacurie](https://vimeo.com/lacurieo), [Patrick Keating](https://vimeo.com/user41751682), [Thomas Flight](https://www.youtube.com/@ThomasFlight/videos), [Tracy Cox-Stanton](https://vimeo.com/tracycoxstanton), [Will DiGravio](https://vimeo.com/willdigravio) ### Peer Review Journals [16:9 filmtidsskrift](http://www.16-9.dk/?s=video+essay) — Danish film studies journal, ~5 essays/year in English. [The Cine-Files](http://thecine-files.com/) — open access, Cinema Studies program at Savannah College of Art and Design; founding editor Tracy Cox-Stanton. *Feminist Media Histories: An International Journal* — special issue on Videographic Criticism (fall 2023). [Frames Cinema Journal](https://framescinemajournal.com/) — launched 2012, University of St. Andrews; 2012 issue on "video essays" edited by Catherine Grant. [Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media](https://www.frameworknow.com/audio-visual) — audio-visual segment; senior editor Drake Stutesman, editor Susan Potter. [\[in\]Transition](https://intransition.openlibhums.org/) — collaboration between *Media Commons* and *Journal of Cinema and Media Studies*; double peer review, open access, quarterly. [Mise-en-Scene: the Journal of Film & Visual Narration](https://journals.kpu.ca/index.php/msq) — founded 2016, Kwantlen Polytechnic University. [Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism](https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/film/movie) — rolling publication, UK. [Music, Sound and the Moving Image](https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/msmi) — Liverpool University Press, founded 2009; editors Liz Greene, Neepa Majumdar, Ben Winters. [NECSUS](https://necsus-ejms.org/) — biannual, open access, double-blind review; NECS: European Network for Cinema and Media Studies. [Screenworks](https://screenworks.org.uk/) — peer-review journal of practice research in screen media; launched 2006, founding editor Charlotte Crofts. [Tecmerin: Journal of Audiovisual Essays](https://tecmerin.uc3m.es/en/journal) — biannual, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, bilingual (Spanish/English). #### Special Issues [Academic Filmmaking in the New Humanities: Video Essays](https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/ak/issue/view/523), *Academic Quarter/Akademisk Kwarter* (fall 2024). Iluminace, special issue on [Configuring Computer Labor in Film and Audiovisual Media](https://iluminace.cz/en/magno/ilu/2024/mn2.php). *Monstrum: Journal of Horror Studies*, special issue on Videographic Criticism (expected December 2024). ### Non-Peer Review Journals and Websites [Audiovisualcy](https://vimeo.com/groups/audiovisualcy) — Vimeo playlist organized by Catherine Grant. [Film Studies for Free](https://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/) — blog run by Catherine Grant since 2008. [MUBI Notebook](https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/tag/The%20Video%20Essay?page=1) — video essays published every June since 2017. [Desistfilm](https://desistfilm.com/category/videoessays) (Spanish language). [Notes on Videographic Criticism Substack](https://thevideoessay.substack.com/). [Filmscalpel](https://www.filmscalpel.com/best-practices/) ([vimeo](https://vimeo.com/filmscalpel)). ### Exemplary Videographic Works **As Shot/Sequence Analysis**: Barbara Zecchi, "[Queering Gentlemen Prefer Blondes](https://vimeo.com/751386510)"; Dayna McLeod, "[Wild at Heterosexuality](https://daynarama.com/wild-at-heterosexuality-voice-over-video-essay/)"; Catherine Grant, "[Un/Contained: A Video Essay on Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank (2009)](https://vimeo.com/filmstudiesff)". **As Auteur Study**: Ken Provencher, "[Wong Kar-wai's Sleepers](https://mediacommons.org/intransition/wong-kar-wai%E2%80%99s-sleepers)"; Evelyn Kreutzer, "[Footsteps](https://vimeo.com/525008570)". **As Compare/Contrast Analysis**: Ken Provencher, "[Wong Kar-wai's Sleepers](https://mediacommons.org/intransition/wong-kar-wai%E2%80%99s-sleepers)"; Maud Ceuterick, "[Resilient Aging Women: A Question of Performance](https://intransition.openlibhums.org/article/id/15443/)"; Maria Hoffman, "[Maria's Maria](https://tecmerin.uc3m.es/project/marias-maria/?lang=en)". **As Historical and Cultural Analysis**: Terri Francis, "[Josephine Baker Watches Herself](https://online.ucpress.edu/fmh/article/9/4/32/197468/Josephine-Baker-Watches-Herself)"; Katie Bird, "[Feeling and Thought as They Take Form: Early Steadicam, Labor and Technology, 1974-1985](https://intransition.openlibhums.org/article/id/11271/)"; Liz Greene, "[Spencer Bell, Nobody Knows My Name](https://www.openscreensjournal.com/article/id/8160/)"; Emilija Talijan, "[Mediated Auscultation](https://mediacommons.org/intransition/mediated-auscultation)". **Multi-Screen**: Catherine Grant, "[Deja Viewing?: Videographic Experiments in Intertextual Film Studies](https://uclamediascapearchive.erraticplay.com/Winter2013_DejaViewing.html)," *Mediascape* (winter 2013); Max Tohline, "[Supercut of Supercuts: Aesthetics, Histories, Databases](https://openscreensjournal.com/article/id/6946)," *Open Screens* (2021); Katherine Groo, "[Cut, Paste, Glitch, and Stutter: Remixing Film History](https://framescinemajournal.com/article/cut-paste-glitch-and-stutter)," *Frames Cinema Journal* (2012). **Further exemplary works**: [My Mulholland Drive](https://www.thecine-files.com/on-mulholland-drive/) (Jessica McGoff, *Cine-Files*); [A History of the World According to Getty Images](https://mediacommons.org/intransition/history-world-according-getty-images) (Richard Misek, *[In]Transition*); [With a Camera in Hand, I Was Alive](https://necsus-ejms.org/with-a-camera-in-hand-i-was-alive/) (Katie Bird, *NECSUS*); [Light Hands](https://vimeo.com/921996906) (Lily Ford, *Movie*); [Re-Animating the Vanishing Woman](https://mediacommons.org/intransition/re-animating-vanishing-woman-invisible-labour-embodied-gesture) (Paola Voci, *[In]Transition*); [The Present is the Past is the Present](https://www.16-9.dk/2024/10/the-present-is-the-past-is-the-present/) (Steven Sehman, *16:9*); [Vampire Optics](https://intransition.openlibhums.org/article/id/16870/) (Allan Cameron, *[In]Transition*); [In Comparison](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdW-2ALWrw) (Harun Farocki); [Queering Gentlemen Prefer Blondes](https://vimeo.com/751386510) (Barbara Zecchi); [What Makes a Video Essay Great?](https://vimeo.com/199577445) (Kevin B. Lee, 2014). ### Desktop Documentaries [TRANSFORMERS: THE PREMAKE (a desktop documentary)](https://vimeo.com/groups/essay/videos/94101046) (Kevin B. Lee, 2014); [A Brief Look at Texting and the Internet in Film](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFfq2zblGXw) (Tony Zhou, Every Frame a Painting, 2014); [Desktop Documentaries Tutorial with Kevin B. Lee](https://vimeo.com/500495238); [Screen Stories Library](https://www.alsolikelife.com/screenstories); [Reading//Binging//Benning](https://vimeo.com/252840859) (Kevin B. Lee/Chloe Galibert-Laine, 2018); [With a Camera in Hand (I was Alive)](https://vimeo.com/521933977); [Desktop Documentary as Scholarly Subjectivity: Five Approaches](https://necsus-ejms.org/desktop-documentary-as-scholarly-subjectivity-five-approaches/) (Ariel Avissar, 2023 NECSUS issue); [Desktop documentary: From artefact to artist(ic) emotion](https://necsus-ejms.org/desktop-documentary-from-artefact-to-artistic-emotions/) (Miklós Kiss, 2021); [Desktop or Phone-Based Videos](https://vimeo.com/showcase/7859780?page=2); Ariel Avissar, "This is Not What I Normally Do: An Insignificant Step in the Downfall of the Humanities," *Academic Quarter* (fall 2024) — emerged from the Embodying the Video Essay workshop at Bowdoin College, 2023. ### Tools [ffmpeg examples](https://hhsprings.bitbucket.io/docs/programming/examples/ffmpeg/index.html); [ffmpeg explorer](https://ffmpeg.lav.io/); [youtube2Webpage](https://github.com/obra/Youtube2Webpage) ### Other Video Essays — Selections From CMS 240: Writing on Queer Cinema (Cain Miller) [I Saw the TV Glow: CRT Memories and Fuzzy Genders](https://youtu.be/64ppfdw1dBQ?si=YYspfDgmMba9-TgA); [Hedwig and the Angry Inch Cracked My Egg](https://youtu.be/gpaulFnyOuE?si=gSLcHXNv_-vbl9U6) (David J Bradley); [Clive Barker Needs More Gay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxzao_GZVYY) (rantasmo); [Abject Women: The Greatest Horror of All](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1yfsfQphmo) (Broey Deschanel); [The Catharsis of Body Horror](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VosvAUS8Ww) (Yhara Zayd); [Hellraiser (1987)](https://youtu.be/RCfM37c8wew?si=AmEefwAm4qtn5qF8) (Horror Queers podcast); [hollywood has a 'scary old lady' problem](https://youtu.be/3L_yjYKHK5w?si=SO_EueVQcjknopOn) (Girl on Film); [Hag Horror: Why Are We So Afraid of Old Women?](https://youtu.be/-kARVRt-p6w?si=Gb-oRUerPFvhLuDS) (Broey Deschanel); ["The Secret Gay Love Affair Behind Alfred Hitchcock's Rope"](https://youtu.be/wR_08mjrDQs?si=QiXj1lxVkCkDJaBh) (Matt Baume); ["Psycho's Norman Bates and the Hidden Life of Anthony Perkins"](https://youtu.be/Injn2djBr9M?si=NKm1_t8lJnzyLKAn) (Matt Baume); ["1940: Rebecca - Hitchcock's Obsessions"](https://youtu.be/VZYLzwfWxNw?si=iK6d_4lFtF0xfz08) (100 Years of Cinema); ["The Lesbian Gaze"](https://youtu.be/3LcV2HmZUfY?si=DuUHfeXj7srV59VG) (verilybitchie); [The Hidden History of Paris is Burning](https://youtu.be/76NACAZQjUU?si=sq7MYwlTSdh9Hchz) (Matt Baume); [I'll Never Call Myself...](https://youtu.be/V6Irgvsj4W8?si=ChCfE3LHQ1S0gOql) (Kat Blaque); [We Need to Talk About Call Me by Your Name](https://youtu.be/hVp1F7I1kjI?si=zxcqv1dwGlR3E_NI) (Lola Sebastian); [Why Queer TV is Getting Worse](https://youtu.be/dQY6iVJlAH0?si=F9WwGaq0Fc1b9zd_) (verilybitchie); [What Makes Disney Villains so Gay?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsWpUSEKSbk) (Matt Baume); [What is a "Gay Icon?"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwpKwJu1b7I) (Rantasmo); ['00s Bisexual Chic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqdD5d3iRoU) (verilybitchie); [Saltburn: The Tumblr-ification of Cinema](https://youtu.be/y0dAGXixsck?si=-EBVgxJzmoewYokw) (Broey Deschanel). ### Key Theorists - Catherine Grant - foundational videographic-criticism scholar and practitioner; runs Film Studies for Free and the Audiovisualcy channel - Christian Keathley and Jason Mittell - co-authors of [[The Videographic Essay]], the field's core methodological text ### Exemplary Practitioners - Kevin B. Lee - pioneer of the "desktop documentary" form ### Related Concepts - [[Queer Theory]] - overlaps directly via the "Writing on Queer Cinema" video essay list ### Creative and Technical Practices - [[ffmpeg-ffprobe]] - core tool for building and manipulating video essays ### Associated Movements or Institutions %% none yet %% ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography [[The Videographic Essay]] Keathley, Christian, Jason Mittell, Catherine Grant, Eric Faden, and Kevin B. Lee. *The Videographic Essay: Criticism in Sound & Image*. 2nd rev. and expanded ed. Kino-Agora. Caboose, 2019. ### Secondary Sources Bibliography Alter, Nora M. "2: The Essay Film and Its German Variations." In *Generic Histories of German Cinema*, ed. Jaimey Fisher. Boydell and Brewer, 2013. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9781571138705-004](https://doi.org/10.1515/9781571138705-004). Bean, Jennifer M. "Introduction: Feeling Videographic Criticism." *Feminist Media Histories* 9, no. 4 (2023): 1–13. [https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2023.9.4.1](https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2023.9.4.1). Berg, Thomas van den, and Miklós Kiss. *Film Studies in Motion: From Audiovisual Essay to Academic Research Video*. Scalar, 2016. "Expanded Cinema: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition - University of Washington." May 11, 2025. [https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay/cdi_proquest_ebookcentral_EBC6129489/01ALLIANCE_UW:UW](https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay/cdi_proquest_ebookcentral_EBC6129489/01ALLIANCE_UW:UW). "FADEN Manifesto for Critical Media_Spring08." n.d. Film Fest Gent. "Wide Angle: Il buco - Video-essays." April 28, 2025. [https://www.filmfestival.be/nl/nieuws/ffg-wide-angle-video-essays-il-buco](https://www.filmfestival.be/nl/nieuws/ffg-wide-angle-video-essays-il-buco). Gallagher, Owen. *Remix Semiosis as Ideology Critique: A Visual Semiotic Study of Critical Remix Video*. n.d. Garwood, Ian. "From 'Video Essay' to 'Video Monograph'?: Indy Vinyl as Academic Book - NECSUS." June 15, 2020. [https://necsus-ejms.org/from-video-essay-to-video-monograph-indy-vinyl-as-academic-book/](https://necsus-ejms.org/from-video-essay-to-video-monograph-indy-vinyl-as-academic-book/). Garwood, Ian, dir. *The Place of Voiceover in Academic Audiovisual Film and Television Criticism*. 2016. [https://vimeo.com/180804806](https://vimeo.com/180804806). Grant, Catherine. "How Long Is a Piece of String? On the Practice, Scope and Value of Videographic Film Studies and Criticism." November 23–24, 2013. [https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/audiovisualessay/frankfurt-papers/catherine-grant/](https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/audiovisualessay/frankfurt-papers/catherine-grant/). Grant, Catherine. *The Shudder of a Cinephiliac Idea? Videographic Film Studies Practice as Material Thinking*. n.d. Greene, L. "Teaching the Student, Not the Subject: Videographic Scholarship." *The Cine-Files*, no. 15 (November 2020). [http://www.thecine-files.com/teaching-the-student-not-the-subject/](http://www.thecine-files.com/teaching-the-student-not-the-subject/). Greene, Liz. "Researching Audiovisually: Experiments in Videographic Criticism in David Lynch's The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet." In *Networked David Lynch*, ed. Marcel Hartwig, Andreas Rauscher, and Peter Niedermüller. Edinburgh University Press, 2023. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv32vqhkt.17](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv32vqhkt.17). Iluminace. April 28, 2025. [https://iluminace.cz](https://iluminace.cz). "Introduction to the Audiovisual Essay: A Child of Two Mothers - NECSUS." December 3, 2014. [https://necsus-ejms.org/introduction-audiovisual-essay-child-two-mothers/](https://necsus-ejms.org/introduction-audiovisual-essay-child-two-mothers/). Kiss, Miklós. *Videographic Criticism in the Classroom: Research Method and Communication Mode in Scholarly Practice*. n.d. [online](https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/videographic-criticism-in-the-classroom-research-method-and-commu). Lavik, Erlend. *Notes on the Scholarliness of Videography*. n.d. [https://www.thecine-files.com/notes-on-the-scholarliness-of-videography/](https://www.thecine-files.com/notes-on-the-scholarliness-of-videography/). Loock, Kathleen. *In Search of Academic Legitimacy: The Video Essay Between Disciplines, Online Film Culture, and Traditional Text-Based Scholarship*. n.d. [PDF](http://www.thecine-files.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/KLoock_TheCineFiles_issue15.pdf). MONTRÉAL MONSTRUM SOCIETY / SOCIÉTÉ MONSTRUM DE MONTRÉAL. "MONSTRUM v7 N2 (December 2024)." April 28, 2025. [https://www.monstrum-society.ca/monstrum-v7-n2-december-2024.html](https://www.monstrum-society.ca/monstrum-v7-n2-december-2024.html). Martin, Adrian, and Cristina Álvarez López. "Introduction to the Video Essay: A Child of Two Mothers." *NECSUS* (December 2014). [https://necsus-ejms.org/introduction-audiovisual-essay-child-two-mothers/](https://necsus-ejms.org/introduction-audiovisual-essay-child-two-mothers/). Mittell, Jason. "Videographic Criticism as Digital Humanities Method." In *Debates in the Digital Humanities* (2018). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.5749/j.ctvg251hk.23.pdf](https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.5749/j.ctvg251hk.23.pdf). Spatz, Ben. "Techniques of Videographic Thought." *Journal of Embodied Research* 5, no. 1 (2022). [https://doi.org/10.16995/jer.9315](https://doi.org/10.16995/jer.9315). "The Audiovisual Research Essay as an Alternative to Text-Based Scholarship | [in]Transition." September 18, 2014. [https://mediacommons.org/intransition/2014/08/22/kiss](https://mediacommons.org/intransition/2014/08/22/kiss). "Video Essays Guide · Learning on Screen." April 28, 2025. [https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/resources/guides/video-essays/](https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/resources/guides/video-essays/).