The Film Essay: A Singular Work of Art

A film essay is intended as a work of art. An expressive, impressionistic, expressionistic, subjective interpretation of reality in film form. The subject could be anything—an idea, a person, a journey. It can take many forms. It can have narration or not. But it is always intended as a singular work of art that is not dependent on what I call a "system of thought."

This is very different from a video essay.

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The Video Essay: Two A Priori Requirements

A video essay needs two things as presuppositions, two things a priori.

First, it needs a platform to be shared—an online platform, whether it's YouTube, ResearchGate, or anything that is online-based. A sharing platform.

Second, it needs a critical voice.

The first association with video essays is academic. When I was studying in film school, I advocated for students to be able to present video essays instead of final written essays for a course. This way they could demonstrate that they finished the course while also having work for their portfolio—showing both their editing skills and their thinking. Otherwise, nobody's going to present a dissertation in a BA program for a job application.

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The Analytical vs. The Poetic

The video essay is more intentional in its critical approach. It's mostly about cinema itself—not always, but often.

Think of the work of Kevin B. Lee, for example. His films tend to deconstruct media and how we consume it on online platforms. His work is clearly video essay. And it's clear because he tends to use video as a form of analysis, using the form to analyze itself. It's meta-analysis, which is perfect for what he's doing.

In contrast, think of Chris Marker. Nobody would ever accuse him of doing video essays, even when he made films that touch on media. Films like Level Five use those mediums to reflect on technology, memory, and connection—intended for the big screen. They're not critical so much as they are poetic.

Think of Sans Soleil. That film does not analyze anything. It's a poetic journey.

Video essays, by definition, are less poetic than they are analytical. Film essays' premises tend to be more abstract, more poetic than analytical.

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Different Approaches to Reality

The film essay tends to observe reality, experience it, then show it to the viewer.

Video essays tend to deconstruct reality, criticize it, and present it.

The approach is very different, and the final film is very different.

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Examining My Own Work

When I look at my own work, I would never call my films video essays. Whether it's The Same Snowy Ground, where I filmed the absence of places in Eastern Europe where shtetls used to be and now they are just memories, or whether it's The Invention of Chris Marker, which examines the afterlife of Chris Marker online—his Second Life museum, his fans, the remains of his spirit.

It's a journey. It's more of a poetic, philosophical kind of investigation than an analysis of online behavior or a deconstruction of how Chris Marker used avatars or whatnot. That's definitely not what interested me, and thus the film cannot, according to my definitions, be anything associated with video essay.

It's clearly a film essay. It's poetic. It's abstract. It's playful. These are things far removed from video essays.

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The Question of Audience

Who are you speaking to?

In a video essay, you're often speaking to people who already know the film or the concept you're analyzing. You're entering an existing discourse. You're making an argument, providing evidence, building a case.

In a film essay, you're taking the viewer on a journey with you. They don't need prior knowledge. They need openness to experience.

This is why video essays often include clips, references, citations. They're building on existing knowledge, existing conversations.

Film essays build their own world from the ground up.

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The Academic Question

Video essays emerged from academic contexts—film studies departments, visual culture programs, media literacy initiatives. They offered a way for students and scholars to publish their thinking in the same medium they were analyzing.

Film essays emerged from artistic practice—from filmmakers like Chris Marker, Agnès Varda, Harun Farocki who wanted to think through cinema, not just with words, but with images and sounds themselves.

The video essay asks: How can I use video to analyze this film, this phenomenon, this cultural moment?

The film essay asks: How can I use film to explore this idea, this feeling, this observation about the world?

Different questions yield different works.

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On Playfulness and Abstraction

Film essays can afford to be playful in ways video essays often cannot. They can be abstract, elliptical, even opaque. They can withhold information, create mystery, leave things unresolved.

Video essays, with their analytical mandate, need clarity. They need to make their argument legible. They can be creative in their presentation, but the thinking must come through clearly.

The Invention of Chris Marker is playful because it doesn't need to prove anything. It explores, wanders, observes. It's interested in the experience of encountering Marker's afterlife online, not in deconstructing it.

A video essay about the same subject would ask: What does Marker's digital presence tell us about authorship in the internet age? What are the mechanisms by which a deceased auteur's identity is preserved and transformed online?

Same subject. Different mode of inquiry.

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Key Distinctions at a Glance

Film Essay:

• Intended as a work of art

• Can exist independently of online platforms

• Poetic and impressionistic approach

• Observes and experiences reality

• Personal and subjective interpretation

• Can be abstract, elliptical, playful

• Takes viewer on a journey

• Builds its own world

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Video Essay:

• Requires online platform for distribution

• Academic or critical voice

• Analytical approach

• Deconstructs and critiques reality

• Often meta-analytical about cinema itself

• Prioritizes clarity and argument

• Enters existing discourse

• Relies on shared knowledge

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The distinction matters not because one is superior to the other, but because understanding what you're making—and from what position you're making it—shapes every decision in the creative process. A film essay invites the viewer into a personal observation of reality. A video essay invites the viewer into a critical analysis of form, content, or medium.

Know which conversation you're entering, and you'll know how to speak.