The case for the video essay

Temenuga Trifonova, Professor of Film Studies UCL, reflects on the creative and intellectual potential of videographic criticism for researchers and students alike 

Located at the intersection of art, theory, and research, videographic criticism combines creative and academic research practices and supports the development of knowledge and innovation through artistic expression, scholarly investigation, and experimentation. In November 2024, I joined pioneering scholars and filmmakers Catherine Grant and Kevin B. Lee for a panel event at the Institute of Advanced Studies, supported by the UCL Centre for Humanities Education, to discuss the use and value of videographic criticism. In this blog post I reflect on the potential of videographic criticism as a research methodology and assessment method, drawing on the presentations and conversations at this event.  

Throughout our conversation, and during the Q&A session following it, we interrogated the false distinction between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ and underscored the importance of recognizing humanities research as an experimental, creative practice leading to new ideas, methods, and pedagogies. Videographic criticism challenges the conventions of academic discourse and invites us to rethink traditional models of knowledge production by creating a space where critical thought and creative expression intersect. Unlike traditional essays, video essays communicate through rhythm, montage, sound, and the visual texture of moving images: the images themselves embody thought rather than serving as mere illustrations of ideas and concepts. On the other hand, like textual essays, video essays can take various forms, from the expository, through the argumentative, to the conceptual and the poetic.  

We explored the history of videographic criticism and the new types of knowledge it produces. The video essay is not simply a way of presenting research findings but an autonomous research practice – processing audiovisual material constitutes a form of inquiry through which scholars can produce new insights unavailable through textual means alone. In short, videographic criticism is not just a method or a fashionable trend but a new, transformative way of knowing. 

For videographic scholarship to flourish, however, it needs institutional recognition – universities and funding bodies need to recognize videographic criticism as a legitimate, rigorous contribution to knowledge rather than as merely supporting or illustrating traditional research. At the event in November, Grant and Lee emphasized the need for supportive frameworks, resources, and evaluative criteria that acknowledge the intellectual depth and transformative potential of audiovisual scholarship. These concerns naturally led to a discussion of the ways in which videographic criticism can be incorporated in teaching and assessment, given that audiovisual scholarship changes not only the way we do research but also the way we, and our students, learn. Particular emphasis was placed on the importance of rethinking the process of learning as a process of exploration rather than a pursuit of mastery, and thus marking not the technical competence of the finished product but rather students’ process of reflection and self-awareness, the way in which they are able to articulate their own creative decisions, in short, their meta-cognitive skills.  

Many audience members, including students and course instructors, suggested that videographic criticism might best serve students at advanced stages of study, once they have developed confidence with textual and theoretical frameworks, by encouraging them to experiment with academic conventions and norms.  

Have thoughts about using video in research and assessment? Comment below! 

Our panellists and their work

Catherine Grant and Kevin B. Lee are pioneers in videographic criticism.  

Catherine Grant is an Honorary Professor at Aarhus Universitet and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Reading, founder of the [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies. catherinegrant.org 

Check out her video essay on Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Woman.  

Kevin B. Lee is Professor of the Future of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts at Università della Svizzera Italiana, a filmmaker, and media artist. He has produced over 360 video essays. alsolikelife.com 

Check out Lee’s Transformers: The Premake, a film which introduced the “desktop documentary” format and was named one of the best documentaries of 2014 by Sight & Sound.  

 

Resources 

Curious to explore this topic more? Below you can find some further resources on the growing field of videographic criticism as both critical and pedagogical tool.  

[in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film & Moving Image Studies
A leading, fully open access, peer reviewed academic journal that publishes videographic criticism, founded by Catherine Grant.  

Dean, R. T., and Hazel Smith, ed. Practice-Led Research, Research-Led Practice in the Creative Arts. Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
Examines how creative practice can function as both a method of inquiry and a form of knowledge production, bridging artistic creation and academic research within the creative arts. 

Biemann, Ursula, ed. Stuff It: The Video Essay in the Digital Age. Zürich: Institute for Theory of Art and Design, 2003.
Explores how the video essay serves as a hybrid form of artistic and critical practice, merging theory, image, and politics to rethink authorship and knowledge production in the digital era. 

Nicholas Vick, “The Video Essay”
Discusses video essays as alternative/complementary assignments to written papers across disciplines, and their potential for assessment in undergraduate contexts. 

Ashley Hinck, “Framing the Video Essay as Argument”
Outlines a framework for teaching video essays as rigorous argumentation comparable to written essays and discusses how to assess them. 

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About the author:
Temenuga Trifonova is Professor of Film Studies at University College London and the author of Precarity in Western European Cinema (2025, Amsterdam University Press), Screening the Art World (2022, Amsterdam University Press), The Figure of the Migrant in Contemporary European Cinema (2020, Bloomsbury Academic), Contemporary Visual Culture and the Sublime (2018, Routledge), Warped Minds: Cinema and Psychopathology (2014, Amsterdam University Press), European Film Theory (2009, Routledge), The Image in French Philosophy (2007, Rodopi), and the novels Tourist (2018, Black Scat Books) and Rewrite (2014, NON Publishing).