Critique, protest, activism, and the video essay

Abstract

Video essays curated for the Spring 2017 issue of NECSUS are introduced as a way to view audiovisual film criticism and scholarship in a more explicitly social and political context. The author finds themes of social critique, protest, and activism underrepresented in audiovisual essay work originating from both popular video sharing platforms and from academia. The author interrogates the nature of his own interest in these themes as related to his background as a cinephile, promoting the question of how a cinephile might become political as well as how the production of video essays could be construed as a political activity.