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Filmscalpel

@filmscalpel.bsky.social

1.1K followers 361 following 98 posts

Audiovisual thoughts about audiovisual arts. Filmscalpel creates, collects and curates video essays at www.filmscalpel.com

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[in]Transition @intransition.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

New issue just launched, with nine new video essays on topics including Red Desert, One Night in Miami, surveillance footage, visual representations of sound, feminist zombie narratives, the British cine-club movement, and Before Sunrise! Check them out: intransition.openlibhums.org/issue/1969/i...

intransition.openlibhums.org

[in]Transition | Issue: Issue: 3(13) (2026)

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin study one of their favourites, Brian De Palma, in this great video essay for @filmkrant.bsky.social. They trace the brilliant mise-en-scène of The Untouchables (1987) back to his earlier effort Greetings (1968).

The Thinking Machine #105: Mise en Sign

Brian De Palma is a director who usually relies on variety and surprise in the way he shoots and edits scenes. In the build-up to the famous staircase shootout in The Untouchables (1987), however, he ...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

In 1979, a PG version of Saturday Night Fever hit theaters. @leighsinger.bsky.social dug up this oddity for @lwlies.com and compares it to the original, more mature version. A strong video essay on the power of (re-)editing.

The alternate Saturday Night Fever you (probably) haven’t seen

YouTube video by Little White Lies

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

John Carpenter’s THEY LIVE gets a machinima remake in GRAND THEFT REALITY. Tolgahan Gücüyeter and Kevin Michael Miklos Spina use GTA5 as the setting for their short version of the anticapitalist classic.

"Grand Theft Reality" by raumschrott.xyz

YouTube video by raumschrott

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Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

ADAPTIVE FORMS is a “videographic book” by Gregory Brophy and Shawn Malley that contains several fascinating video essays. They combine sharp analysis, deft editing and compelling storytelling. One of the standouts is OUR/OWN/DEVICES, a mash-up montage that draws on the tradition of fan vids.

4. Splice: Our/Own/Devices

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Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

LATENT HEAT exposes the ecological impact of data centers using their own (technical) videos. Roc Albalat reclaims corporate imagery through appropriation and remix, and in doing so demonstrates the activist potential of the video essay form. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

Latent Heat by Roc Albalat

The video essay reinterprets technical images from the cooling industry, transforming them from tools of efficiency into critical lenses. It helps reveal how data center heat management relates to bro...

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Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Since @criterion.bsky.social just released a new 4K restoration of 12 Angry Men, it seems like a good time to plug 12 SILENT MEN. My video essay turns that talky talkie into a silent movie. Because silence is golden when you want to highlight Sidney Lumet’s visual direction and blocking.

Alfred Hitchcock was an advocate of visual storytelling. “Pure cinema” is what he called it. He wasn’t keen on movies that relied heavily on dialogue: Hitchcock cheekily referred to them as “photograp...

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Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

ECHOING BOOM foregoes Blade Runner’s fantastic visuals to focus on its sounds. The spare soundscape becomes a counterpoint to the film’s dense visuals, argues this video essay by Marius Øfsti, published in 16:9 filmtidsskrift.

[Echoing Boom]: The sounds of spaces in Blade Runner

Blade Runner is rightly hearalded for its layered visuals and visionary design. Yet, when I revisited it recently I was struck by it’s sounds and how they connect to themes from the source novel and t...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

In his own words. A CLASS WITH JOAQUIM JORDÀ uses archival interviews with the Catalan filmmaker to piece together a videographic lecture. The result is a deft, thought-provoking video essay by @nuriacancela.bsky.social and Samantha da Silva Diefenthaeler. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

A Class With Joaquim Jordà by Nuria Cancela and Samantha da Silva Diefenthaeler

“A Class with Joaquim Jordà” approaches the teaching facet of Catalan documentary filmmaker Joaquim Jordà. The video essay is structured around Jordà’s voice-over, drawn from different documentaries a...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

THE HOLES WE LEFT BEHIND views the coming-of-age film Breaking Away through an industrial lens. Jacob Smith uses archival footage of a stone carver who appeared as an extra to open up a fresh way of reading Peter Yates' film. The result is a remarkable video essay that "extracts" new insights.

The Holes We Left Behind

This video essay has been published in Movie: a journal of criticism issue 12, and an accompanying statement can be read here.

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Benedetta Andreasi sings the praises of an Italian talkshow host in PHENOMENOLOGY OF MARCO DAMILANO. Through inventive visuals, her video essay explores the source of his appeal. Published on @intransition.bsky.social

Phenomenology of Marco Damilano by Benedetta Andreasi

"Phenomenology of Marco Damilano" is a study on how Damilano’s talk show Il Cavallo e la Torre mediates displacement and humanitarian crises through reassuring televisual forms. By destabilizing its a...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The work of script supervisor Penny Eyles takes center stage in the video essay MAKING FICTION FLOW. Combining oral testimony with well-chosen and thoughtfully arranged film excerpts, @feministbell.bsky.social and @filmstudiesff.bsky.social give voice and visuals to her underappreciated labor.

MAKING FICTION FLOW

A video essay on film continuity and the life and work of script supervisor Penny Eyles. Published with an accompanying authors' statement in the scholarly journal MOVIE: A Journal of Film Criticism i...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

In TO SEE YOU (IS TO LOVE YOU) – NOVAK VARIATIONS, two Hitchcock masterpieces are joined and conjoined with a film of lesser stature. John Gibbs' great video essay turns the mash-up format into a tool for cinematic emancipation.

To see you (is to love you) – Novak variations

Published in Research in Film & History where you can read a creator's statement. Official Selection Marienbad Film Festival 2025 Official Selection Adelio Ferrero Award 2025 Nominee: Best Experimenta...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Seductive and destructive, oil takes many forms. In TIMELINE DRIPPING, Celia Sainz contrasts its glossy allure in music videos with its devastation in news footage. The result is an unsettling video essay about our "petromodernity." Published by @intransition.bsky.social

Timeline Dripping by Celia Sainz

This video interrogates the contradictory aesthetics of oil using music videos and footage of oil-spill catastrophes to examine how petroleum can hold both exuberance and catastrophe in our lives and ...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The video essay MOMENTS OF INTEGRATION is a close reading of Robert Wise’s noirish Odds Against Tomorrow. Henry Rownd goes through the movie’s mise-en-scène with a fine comb, finding a wealth of overlaps and visual echoes.

Moments of Integration: A Close Analysis of Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise, 1959)

Published in Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, Issue 12 (2025) https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/film/movie/contents/rownd._a_close_analysis_of_odds_against_tomorrow.pdf Author: Henry Rownd H...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The Coens have as keen an ear for sound as they do an eye for images. In his video essay TALES TOLD IN TUNES, Martin Hall argues that the brothers do more than use diegetic folk songs. Their filmmaking, he suggests, displays characteristics of folk music. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

Tales Told in Tunes by Martin Hall

This video essay examines the films of the Coen Brothers, arguing that their distinctive and compelling approach to filmmaking reflects the essence of creating folk music. It posits that the Coen Brot...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The supercut may be a simple format, but in the right hands it still packs a punch. Made for @filmkrant.bsky.social, WILDER MACHINE strings together shots and sounds from Billy Wilder's filmography to reveal his fascination with mechanics and machines, rhythm and repetition.

The Thinking Machine #103: Wilder Machine

On so many levels, Billy Wilder’s films are obsessed with mechanics and machines – the precisely structured scripts he co-wrote have even been described as ‘narrative machines’ in their own right. On ...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

THE RED SHOES: A DESKTOP FAIRY TALE is a love letter to Powell and Pressburger’s film. In her well-crafted video essay, @veronikahanakova.bsky.social attempts to capture the elusive red color of the titular footwear. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

The Red Shoes by Veronika Hanáková

“The Red Shoes: A Desktop Fairy Tale” explores the color red in Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell’s 1948 film. Though shaped by shifting materials and technologies, red remains potent and spellbin...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Mariana Schwartz looks beyond (and behind) the characters in Kubrick’s films. Her supercut compiles the colors and textures, patterns and artworks that frame them. WHAT’S BEHIND THE KUBRICK CHARACTERS? was published by Tecmerin.

What's behind the Kubrick characters. Mariana Schwartz

This is "What's behind the Kubrick characters. Mariana Schwartz" by JOURNAL OF AUDIOVISUAL ESSAYS on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

PLAYING WITH MEDIATION is a fascinating video essay about a fascinating video game. Clémence Folléa documents her playthrough of Season: A Letter to the Future, a game that invites players to document a world on the verge of disappearing. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

Playing with Mediation by Clemence Follea

This is "Playing with Mediation by Clemence Follea" by Open Library of Humanities on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Here's a challenge: make a 60-second micro-essay about... video essays. The latest collaborative project from @theessaylibrary.com goes meta, turning the format’s attention back on itself. Submissions are open until September 21, 2026 at 9:00 AM.

theessaylibrary.com

The Essay Library

A space for creating and discussing video essays.

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The Journal of Embodied Research invites videographic submissions for an issue on how racism, digital technologies, and Asian Americanness are lived, felt, and contested through dance and embodied research. Abstracts are due November 15. Read the call here: tinyurl.com/JER-cfp

CFP: Racing After Technology

CALL FOR PROPOSALS Racing After Technology: Asian American Digital Choreographies and Embodied Research in an Anti-Black World Guest Editor: Al Evangelista, Oberlin College The Journal of Embodied Res...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

APPARATUS has a CFP for a video essay special issue with the title "Resurfacing in the Cut: Videographic Explorations in East Central European Cinemas and Visual Cultures." Abstracts are due October 1, full submissions in March 31, 2027. Read the call here: tinyurl.com/apparatus-cfp

Apparatus Journal cover image

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

@intransition.bsky.social is preparing SCREENING DEATH, a special issue that will "examine how moving images stage and suppress, smooth and trouble, mediated encounters with mortality". Abstracts are due August 31, full submissions in December. Read the Call For Works: tinyurl.com/screening-de...

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Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

EARLY CINEMA’S FISH TANK FILMS dives into the appeal of aquariums for cinema’s pioneers. In a visually rich video essay, @alexzivkovic.bsky.social traces the fascination with fish from Méliès' fantasy films to the documentaries of Jean Painlevé and beyond. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

Early Cinema's Fish Tank Films by Alex Zivkovic

This video essay encourages us to look closely at early cinema’s aquariums. First, seeing the fish and aquatic effects as a “distraction” in the age of the cinema of attractions (Georges Méliès), then...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

When Hitchcock visited Jerusalem in 1966, he had an Israeli state-sponsored film crew in tow. Iddo Better Pocker's video essay BEHIND THE CURTAIN cleverly splices that propaganda film with Hitchcock's Torn Curtain, blurring the line between fiction and fact. Published by @intransition.bsky.social

Behind the Curtain by Iddo Better Pocker

This video examines With Hitchcock in Jerusalem (1966), an Israeli state-sponsored propaganda film documenting Alfred Hitchcock’s visit to Jerusalem. By juxtaposing it with Hitchcock’s feature film To...

Reposted by Filmscalpel

The Essay Library @theessaylibrary.com · 10/01/2026

🚨 THE VIDEO JAM IS BACK! 🚨 📅 January 16–18, 2026 To celebrate five years of The Essay Library, we'll be coming together once again to create video essays in 48 hours. Learn more + join: theessaylibrary.com#jam

Illustration of jam on toast and a traffic jam in the background. Text reads: Join the second annual Video Jam hosted by The Essay Library, January 16-18, 2026. Participants will have 48 hours to create a video essay inspired by a given prompt. Learn more and join at theessaylibrary.com.

Reposted by Filmscalpel

Colleen Laird @colleenlaird.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Call for Applications! Ways of Undoing invites videographic makers, scholars, and artists to apply to one of three intensive, week-long residential workshops (St Andrews 2026 | Vancouver 2027 | Tokyo 2028). Funded accommodation & board provided. Deadline: Feb 1, 2026 waysofdoing.com/ways-of-undo...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

I Know What You’ll Do This Summer.

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

Implement a 100% tariff and ruin a movie. Seventeen

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

How does Kevin Costner's 1991 Robin Hood remember Disney's 1973 version of the outlaw? How does that one, in turn, remember Errol Flynn's 1938 incarnation? Why is Ridley Scott's 2010 take on the character forgettable? @jemsaunders1.bsky.social jogs her memory in this nostalgia-inducing video essay.

Hollywood does Sherwood: Reinforced Aesthetics of my Robin Hoods

Submission for Remakes and Memories (part of the Hollywood Memories project https://hollywood-memories.com/). Hollywood does Sherwood begins as an exploration…

Reposted by Filmscalpel

Ariel Avissar @arielavissar.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Application deadline is March 28 - please share with your students and colleagues who might be interested!

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Friends Down Under: my video essay / short film MALE GAZING is playing at the ninth edition of the CAPRICORN FILM FESTIVAL in Yeppoon, Australia. This Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th January it is part of CAPS EXPERIMENTAL, a short form video art selection. More here: www.capricornfilmfestival.org

capricornfilmfestival.org

CAPS EXPerimental | Capricorn Film Festival 2025

Screening throughout the festival, a series of short form videos projects from international, Australian and Central Queensland artists and filmmakers which fit the narrative of experimental and visua...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

GETTY ABORTIONS explores Getty's stock image databases and finds that the photos used to illustrate abortion are very stereotypical. Franzis Kabisch uses her personal story to challenge the anonymity of those images. #favoritevideoessaysof2024 More here: www.filmscalpel.com/getty-aborti...

Screenshot from video essay GETTI MAGES showing a photo collage of women seen on their backs, unrecognizable, looking out a rainy window.

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Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

MAKEOVER MOVIE by Sue Ding compiles a long list of objections to the trope of the makeover montage and substantiates them with an impressive array of film excerpts. She also enlisted six childhood friends to give a running commentary on her video essay - a great idea. #favoritevideoessaysof2024

A pop culture essay film on the makeover movies we grew up loving—and all the ways they taught us that we needed to fix ourselves. Featuring clips from nearly…

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

HEIMATFILM fashions excerpts from 50 different films into a hilarious supercut. Marion Kellmann deftly combines recurring situations and motifs, and boils the German genre down to its narrative, thematic and iconographic essence. #favoritevideoessaysof2024 More here: www.filmscalpel.com/heimatfilm/

Screenshot from a heimatfilm showing a couple sitting in a mountain landscape, wearing traditional German clothing.

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

MEANWHILE IN LOS SANTOS (DISSOCIATION NATION) is a mod for Grand Theft Auto V that shifts the focus to NPCs (non-player characters, the extras of the gaming world). Their interior monologues are a critique of GTA’s design. #favoritevideoessaysof2024 More here: www.filmscalpel.com/meanwhile-in...

Screenshot from GTA5 Mod "Meanwhile in Los Santos" showing an NPC standing still in a forlorn gas station.

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

LIGHT HANDS is an excellent example of how to revitalise archival footage in a video essay. Historian Lily Ford delves into the Imperial War Museum’s collection of footage of women building airplanes during WWI. She engages with it in a creative and speculative manner. #favoritevideoessaysof2024

This video essay is published in Movie: a Journal of Film Criticism, 11, where you can read more about it: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/film/movie/contents/ford_light_hands._movie_issue11.pdf

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

THE RED GOD strings together footage of foxes recorded by a wildlife camera. Christine Rogers connects her videographic research to her Māori ancestry and her personal history, to decolonisation and the camera as imperial tool, to speciesism and the human/nonhuman divide. #favoritevideoessaysof2024

The foxes come and go, cohabitants of my backyard in Belfast. In this short essay film I explore how I might honour them as my Māori forebears honour their native…

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

DE SONT OF MJOEZIK is a live performance by Maria Zandvliet that translates videographic strategies to the stage. It turns the video essay into a fully embodied form of research. The result is an exhilarating study of fandom. #favoritevideoessaysof2024 More here: www.filmscalpel.com/de-sont-of-m...

Maria Zandvliet performing her live interpretation and analysis of The Sound of Music, using multiple projection screens.

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Here's a great way to start 2025. The Museum of the Moving Image in New York is devoting a screening series to the video essay. From January 3 to 5, they will present four different programs. My video essay THE APARTMENT is part of the second program (scheduled for Jan 4), called REMIXING NEW YORK.

movingimage.org

Expanded Screens: The Video Essay – Museum of the Moving Image

This screening series presents a selection of video essays from across the 21st century that offer a spectrum of the medium’s possibilities, featuring authors who work in a self-defined space somewher...

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

On this day in 1986, Andrei Tarkovsky left us. He had spent only 54 years with us, but he sculpted that time into seven immortal feature films. Celebrate his legacy with this selection of ten video essays: filmscalpel.com/andrei-tarko...

Grainy photo of Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Sight and Sound has published its annual poll of the year's most notable video essays. @queline.bsky.social , @willwebbful.bsky.social, and @cydniiwilde.bsky.social tallied a total of 183 videos. Better start now if you plan to watch them all before the year ends. Or skip Christmas dinner.

The best video essays of 2024

From film festivals to TikTok, our annual poll showcases 183 unique video essays nominated by 47 international voters.

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

On this day in 1930, Jean-Luc Godard was born. He was both film icon and iconoclast, movie rebel and royalty. Defining this chameleonic French provocateur is hard, but these ten video essays give it a go, focusing on different aspects of his output: www.filmscalpel.com/godard

Jean-Luc Godard

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

On November 29, 1954, Joel Coen was born. His brother Ethan would join him three years later. Celebrate their combined creative output with this selection of video essays. 🧵 (Big fan? There are even more on www.filmscalpel.com/coen-brothers/)

A black and white photograph of Joel and Ethan Coen and the on-screen text "Coen Brothers Video Essay Dossier".

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

On November 28, 1961, Alfonso Cuarón was born. He has directed just eight feature films but often does double duty on his movies. He's won Academy awards as director, producer, editor and cinematographer. Here's a selection of half o dozen video essays to celebrate his birthday. 🧵📽️ #filmsky

A black and white photo of Alfonso Cuarón standing behind a window. The text ALFONSO CUARON VIDEO ESSAYS is overlaid.

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

If you want to contribute to the newest volume of the Screen Stars Dictionary, then here's your chance. Previous entries in this series of video essays can be found on the website of the Journal of Audiovisual Essays TECMERIN (see tinyurl.com/2f74a8ej).

tecmerin.uc3m.es

Screen Stars Dictionary | Grupo de Investigación Televisión-cine: memoria, representación en industria

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

On November 23, 1887, William Henry Pratt was born in London. He emigrated to Canada, then the US, where he pursued acting. In 1931 he rose to fame under his stage name Boris Karloff when he played Frankenstein's Creature. Celebrate his birthday with these Frankenstein-themed video essays. 🧵

Boris Karloff in heave make-up as Frankenstein's Creature for James Whale's 1931 film.

Filmscalpel @filmscalpel.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Researcher and visual artist Roc Albalat traces the genealogy of modern AI visuals back to two 19th-century photography pioneers, Marey and Galton. His excellent video essay LATENCIES OF THE STATISTICAL IMAGE invites viewers to reflect on the ambitions and aspirations that underpin AI developments.

Latencies of the statistical image

Today's computer vision and image AI generators have a particular historical trajectory. From the images they produce, we can trace the statistical dreams that…