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Dartmouth College
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Course description
This course introduces students to the art and scholarship of videographic criticism, the practice of using sounds and images to make arguments about film and television. We will take Latinx cinematic history as our subject and employ videographic methods in order to better understand Latinx representation, performance, stardom, and labor in Hollywood. The course will be equally split between learning this history and becoming acquainted with the theory and evolution of videographic practice. To understand how these two realms of inquiry intersect, students will create a series of video essays, workshop their creations with peers, and produce a final, sophisticated essay that demonstrates what they have learned.
“Making Video Essays” is an interactive, collaborative course in which students regularly share and receive feedback on their essays. To that end, we will work from a common body of films during the first part of the term. These will include seminal films in the history of Latinx representation in Hollywood that possess rich aesthetic potential for videographic critique. They are: the film noir, Border Incident (Mann, 1949); the Western, High Noon (Zinneman, 1952); the melodrama, Giant (Stevens, 1956); and the musical, West Side Story (Wise, 1961). After working closely with these films, students will have the opportunity to choose a different film that will form the basis of their final two essays.
[Source: ORC/Catalog, 01/22/2025]; Dist:ART; WCult:CI
In the Library's collections
You can use one of the subject headings below to start your research in the library's online catalog:
- "video essay*This is a keyword search using a phrase.
- film criticismUse this heading for scholarly critiques of film.
Introductory reading(s)
Film criticism and digital cultures: journalism, social media and the democratisation of opinion by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781784532840'The critic is dead.' 'Everyone's a critic.' These statements reflect some of the perceptions of film criticism in a time when an opinion can be published in seconds, yet reach an audience of millions. This book examines the reality of contemporary film criticism, by talking to leading practitioners in the UK and North America - such as Nick James, Mark Cousins, Jonathan Rosenbaum and Richard Porton - and by covering a broad spectrum of influential publications - including Sight & Sound, The Guardian, Cineaste, indieWIRE and Variety. Forming a major new contribution to an emerging field of study, these enquiries survey the impact of larger cultural, economic and technological processes facing society, media and journalism. ...
From the essay film to the video essay: between the critical and the popular from Reclaiming popular documentary by Call Number: Electronic book chapterISBN: 9780253056894The audiovisual essay, a descendant of the “essay film,” is gaining popularity as a way to think and write about film and media among a broad range of practitioners who once occupied distinct spheres, including filmmakers, scholars, students, critics, cinephiles, and fans. While its antecedent was “positioned at the crossroads of ‘documentary, avant-garde, and art film impulses’”¹ and often confined to noncommercial channels of distribution, the audiovisual essay circulates within an expanding online network in which the lines between noncommercial and commercial, as well as between amateur and professional, are increasingly blurred. ...
Video film essay from The Oxford handbook of film theory by Call Number: Electronic book chapterISBN: 9780190873929What can the film essay do? I attend to this question by bringing together writings by Theodor Adorno, Max Bense, Hans Richter, and Hito Steyerl, among others, and films by Jean-Luc Godard, Roberto Rossellini, and Agnès Varda. What distinguishes my inquiry is that I propose to consider the essay form as a kind of rhythm. ...
Selected book title(s)
Art and technology: the practice and influence of art and technology in education by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9789463008617The challenge of how to integrate art and technology in education faces educators all around the world. Approaches for addressing this challenge in ways that enhance the learner's educational experience can be found in different cultures and in different disciplines. Embracing the idea of collaboration among art and technology educators and practitioners, was what Menano and Fidalgo proposed to the authors of the chapters in this book. This book presents ideas that help educators to re-evaluate and re-think how to approach art and technology in the educational setting and offers solutions to develop new experiences for students and communities. ...
Screen memories: a video essay on Smultronstället/ Wild Strawberries from Creative practice research in the age of neoliberal hopelessness by Call Number: Electronic book chapterISBN: 9781474463560Screen Memories is a short split-screen video that began as a piece of free-associational audiovisual exploration. Rather than an explicit work of scholarly exposition, explication or argumentation, it is an instance of creative practice as a mode of enquiry: a concise compilation made to perform or frame a new audiovisual encounter – in this case turning on a technique of gentle defamiliarisation (Ostranenie) – in order to engender new material thinking and feeling. ...
Examples of video essays in our collections
Find more video essays in our collections.
Amores perros by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #23192ISBN: 9781681437859... New video essay by film scholar Paul Julian Smith. ...
Fractal: stories across the gender spectrum by Call Number: Streaming videoFractal: Stories Across the Gender Spectrum is a collection of 4 Transgender and Gender Queer documentary shorts that explores the wide spectrum of experiences often left out of the traditional narrative. From a successful trans woman running her own salon in New Orleans to a collective experimental video essay road film; the collection expands on the joys, struggles and honest conversations within the community.
Husbands: a comedy about life and death and freedom by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #23032ISBN: 9781681437200... John Cassavetes on acting (new video essay by Daniel Raim). ...
Wuthering Heights by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #16735Video essay with film critic David Fear of Time Out New York.
Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)
ASAP/journal by Call Number: Electronic journalASAP/Journal is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to exploring new developments in the post-1960s visual, media, literary, and performance arts as well as their historical provenance and global intersections. As the scholarly journal of ASAP, the journal seeks to promote dialogue between artists and critics across the contemporary arts and humanities. ...- Aspect: journal of film and screen media byCall Number: Electronic journalSponsored by Film Studies in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill, Aspect is a student-led journal for criticism of film, television, video games and other screen-based media. They publish an annual volume of scholarly essays, and continually add content throughout the year that includes reviews, coverage of local festivals and events, top ten lists and more. ... Aspect is committed to amplifying diverse approaches to and perspectives on the past, present, and future of audiovisual media. They aim to serve as a meeting spot for critical and more casual conversations about topics such as: political representations; the fate of “film” in a digital world; the social and aesthetic importance of movie theaters; the visibility of global traditions that aren’t sufficiently highlighted by Oscar nominations; the cross-pollination of international film styles; and the continued development of popular genres from comedy to horror.
Film & television literature indexCall Number: Electronic resourceThis index covers over 300 journal and magazine titles for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest about film and television. About half the journals and magazines are film periodicals and the other half cover film and television with some regularity. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
Communication & mass media complete (CMMC) by Call Number: Online resourceThis is the main article index for the field of Communications.
Web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Internet resource(s)
- Video essay from Wikipedia
A video essay is an essay presented in the format of a video recording or short film rather than a conventional piece of writing; the form often overlaps with other forms of video entertainment on online platforms such as YouTube.[1][2][3][4] A video essay allows an author to directly quote from film, video games, music, or other digital media, which is impossible with traditional writing. ... - The Video Essay PodcastThe Video Essay Podcast is an interview show dedicated to discussion of the theory and practice of videographic criticism. ...
- What is a Video Essay? The Art of the Video Analysis EssayIn the era of the internet and Youtube, the video essay has become an increasingly popular means of expressing ideas and concepts. However, there is a bit of an enigma behind the construction of the video essay largely due to the vagueness of the term. ...
Citing and Tracking Your Bibliographic References
Use this guide to help you learn how to correctly cite and keep track of the references you find for your research.
Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.
You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.