Not surprisingly, the primary focus in terms of medium is cinema (92 works), with television a considerably distant second (only ten works, a mere seven per cent) – videographic telephilia, it seems, still remains relatively dormant when compared with its cinematic counterpart. They are overwhelmingly in the English language, either exclusively or partially (124 works). Works selected for the poll were created by essayists from 21 countries across four continents 48 of them are from the US, 64 from Europe – including 28 from the UK alone, and 10 from Australia. While making up about 25 per cent of the videos featured on the poll, these published videos received 45 per cent of the votes (98 votes). Thirty-four videos have previously been published on established online platforms such as MUBI, Transition, Sight & Sound, NECSUS, Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, De Filmkrant and others. These works were made – or published – this past year, by both established essayists and newcomers to the field some of the videos were viewed only once or twice prior to appearing on this poll, others had up to 5.5 million views, and everywhere in between. Together they submitted a total of 216 votes, which amount to 134 unique entries, consisting primarily of online video essays, but that also include several short and feature-length films (documentaries, essay films and videographic experiments), a few gallery installations and even a live performance, and ranging in length from a mere 51 seconds to a whopping 4½ hours – attesting to the increasingly diverse range of creations that can be considered as ‘video essays’. They are ⅔ (26) male, nearly ⅓ (12) female, and one non-binary contributor they are academics (21) and non-academics (18) they are scholars, teachers, critics, journalists, YouTubers, filmmakers, curators and festival programmers most are active video essayists themselves they are from 17 countries across five continents ten of them are from the US, and 26 are from Europe – including eight from the UK alone. Crunching the resultsĪn overview of the poll, and some numbers and statistics: 39 contributors submitted nominations.
This list hopes to serve as the beginning of that conversation, not its end. Instead, it is our hope that this list will inspire an ongoing conversation amongst those who make and consume this work, highlighting essays our contributors found noteworthy, memorable, exciting or illuminating. Despite the title of the poll, its true purpose is not to establish a definitive list of the ‘best’ essays of the year, which we recognise is an impossible – and perhaps irrelevant – task. Indeed, if there is one word we would like to suggest as embodying the ethos of this year’s poll, it’s ‘community’. As video essays are increasingly incorporated into academic institutions and publications, as well as film festivals and journals worldwide, these new initiatives and others illustrate the ever-growing sense of collaboration and community that characterises the world of video essays. Christian Keathley, Jason Mittell and Catherine Grant published a new open-access book and website, The Videographic Essay: Practice and Pedagogy, a welcome resource for studying and teaching the form. Will DiGravio launched the Video Essay Podcast, featuring in-depth conversations with prominent video essayists. That same month, Tecmerin: Revista de Ensayos Audiovisuales began publication, joining Transition as another peer-reviewed academic publication solely devoted to videographic scholarship. With even more limited outlets to finance their work, more and more video essayists have turned to venues like Patreon.
In December of 2018, Fandor ceased operation, leaving a void in the video essay landscape. This year has been a notable one for video essays or, to use the umbrella term, audiovisual criticism, in ways both good and bad. But one thing is clear: we love watching them, and we love making them.
Three years into this poll, many more years since the form first emerged, and most of us who make and consume this work remain quite unsure of what exactly constitutes a video essay. “I’m not sure I know exactly what a video essay is or is supposed to be… We are using this term as a way to bring a community together.”