The Video Essay Podcast

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 fourth of five conversations between Chloé Galibert-Laîné, Kevin B. Lee and Johannes Binotto, recorded as part of the fourth exhibition of Filmexplorer’s Video Essay Gallery, “Technopresence.” Filmexplorer, a publication based in Switzerland, invited Chloé, Kevin, and Johannes to each curate video essays centered on various themes. Exhibition four will be available to watch on the Filmexplorer website until October 30, 2022.

Episode topics include: "Is the body ghostly present in the technological use and representation? How can we embody the technology of video essays? How much technology guides the subject’s choices, and so displace our focus from the subject to society and its dynamics? But also: how much do the technological choices of the video essayist reveal her/his authorship? Is a technological tool intrinsically open to unexpected uses? How important and destabilising is it to show the archaeology of media in video essays? Can videography as such be seen as a technology?"

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 and Episode Three 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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"

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].