essay film

324 movies and shows

Vowellet - An Essay by Sarah Vowell

Tue, 15 Mar 2005

This Pixar documentary short follows Sarah Vowell, who plays herself as the title character, on why she is a superhero in her own way. (This short piece is included on the 2-Disc DVD for "The Incredibles", which was released in 2005.

Cinema Now

Fri, 08 Apr 2022

A fragmented collection of independent closed cinemas, in London during lockdown, captured on Super 8mm film.

Parallel Lives

Wed, 21 Apr 2021

Born June 8, 1964, Frank Matter films four "twins", born the same day as him, but in other latitudes. Interweaving their life stories with rich archival material, the filmmaker links these Parallel Lives with elements from his own biography, to compose a fascinating fresco where intimate trajectories are part of the advent of the global village.

On Memory

Fri, 19 Nov 2021

Musing on the nature of memory, Don Hertzfeldt recounts stories about a kiss from The King, a floating child in a backyard and a giant foot.

Visions of Europe

Sat, 01 May 2004

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

FFG: un retrato

Thu, 01 Jan 1976

An experimental portrait of Fernando Fernán Gómez, one of the most renowned Spanish artists of all time.

Blin Cat

Thu, 16 Jul 2015

A video essay about a conversation the director had with a friend about a particular picture of a cat sitting in front of a plate of blins.

The Cooking Show

Sun, 14 Feb 2021

The cooking show is as old as television itself. But why do we like watching the making of a meal that most of us will never cook, let alone eat? Dirty Furniture’s jam-packed video essay is a rollercoaster ride through the history of the genre, at once a staple of television viewing and a hotpot of shifting perspectives and sociocultural values.

Papers

Fri, 25 Sep 2020

Jim, a slacker college student, decides to procrastinate on an essay worth 25% of his grade. Will he finish in time, or suffer the consequences?

Arcadia

Sun, 08 Oct 2017

A provocative and poetic exploration of how the British people have seen their own land through more than a century of cinema. A hallucinated journey of immense beauty and brutality. A kaleidoscopic essay on how magic and madness have linked human beings to nature since the beginning of time.

Hands Up!

Mon, 21 Jan 1985

The reunion of a group of former medical students results in a flood of bitter memories.

The March on Rome

Thu, 20 Oct 2022

The fascinating story of the rise to power of dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) in Italy in 1922 and how fascism marked the fate of the entire world in the dark years to come.

Lynch/Oz

Mon, 15 May 2023

Victor Fleming’s 1939 film The Wizard of Oz is one of David Lynch’s most enduring obsessions. This documentary goes over the rainbow to explore this Technicolor through-line in Lynch’s work.

And the Dogs Were Silent

Tue, 27 Apr 1976

For 'Et les chiens se taisaient' Maldoror adapted a piece of theatre by the poet and politician Aimé Césaire (1913–2008), about a rebel who becomes profoundly aware of his otherness when condemned to death. His existential dialogue with his mother reverberates around the African sculptures on display at the Musée de l'Homme, a Parisian museum full of colonial plunder whose director was the Surrealist anthropologist Michel Leiris.

The Weight of Sight

Tue, 23 Jan 2024

The Weight of Sight is a playful and very personal essay where director Truls Krane Meby, through a massive archive of his own material - anything from DV-tapes to 35mm - explores the last 20 years of digital development - how it’s influenced the images we make, and our bodies. What kind of images do we get of the world now that everyone is a photographer, and what does it do with how we unfold our identities? How has the internet both captured and freed us? And will Truls even dare to show this film?

Night and Fog in Zona

Thu, 29 Nov 2018

Korean film critic Jeong Sung-il’s camera explores the work of Wang Bing, a Chinese director who won international fame with his film Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks. Jeong’s attempt to pry into Wang’s filmmaking secrets leads to the question: “What is film?”

Undercurrents: Meditations on Power

Sun, 06 Aug 2023

Made from reimagined/recycled images and sounds from the filmmaker’s archive and other found materials, Undercurrents is a poetic essay documentary about the undercurrents of history playing out in the present. It is also (at its heart) about the power of resistance.