The 20 Best Video Essays of 2020
In a year when we needed distractions, these were the video essays that kept us digging deep into the content we love.
“EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW TO SURVIVE #COVID19 I LEARNED BY WATCHING SCI-FI & HORROR MOVIES”
Sneak Peek:
Who among us hasn’t let out a dark, exasperated “lol, same” whist watching a film during the pandemic? This upbeat montage from back in May splices together a smattering of cinematic moments that resonated (and continue to resonate, unfortunately) with our ongoing predicament. If you want to remember how Spring 2020 felt, this is a quick (and fun) way to do it.
Essay By:
The mashup was created by Evan Gorski and Michael Dougherty. Dougherty is the director behind such genre fare as Krampus, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and the fantastic holiday horror anthology Trick’r Treat.
“The Shining and The Lighthouse: The Horror of Isolation”
Sneak Peek:
With almost forty years between them, The Lighthouse and The Shining are both top-shelf films about how it feels to quietly go insane while isolated, a psychological state that became a reality for most of us this year. This essay’s all about why this cabin fever double bill slaps harder than a baseball bat.
Essay By:
Based out of the UK, Masters of Movies has been releasing video essays on YouTube over the last year. You can follow them on Twitter here. They also post reviews and blog posts on their website, including a list of ten underrated films to watch during quarantine.
“On the Importance of Exploding Heads”
Sneak Peek:
Sometimes, you just want to watch an ecstatic love letter about why blown-up brains are a metaphor for an expanding conscience. For what is spiritual progress if not an exploding head? This video is sincere in a goofy way that really speaks to me. It’s mind-blowings stuff.
Essay By:
“On the Importance of Exploding Heads” was written and edited by Benjamin Shearn, a film editor and writer. This specific video is the first entry in Sheran’s new video essay series, “Driftless Significance.”
“The Mysteries of the Magick Lantern Cycle”
Sneak Peek:
Kenneth Anger is one of those filmmakers whose work comes with a dozen footnotes. So having a video essay explain not only the significance of his work but its complexities and wrinkles is extra helpful. This is one of the longer videos on this list, but I wouldn’t let that deter you. Complex figures require a lot of care, context, and caveats, which takes time. In all, it makes for one wild and captivating ride.
Essay By:
In Praise of Shadows is a video essay channel run by Zane Whitener and based in Asheville, North Carolina, that focuses on horror, history, and retrospectives. You can subscribe to their YouTube channel here And you can follow them on Twitter here.
“Missed Calls: A Eulogy For The Movie Phone Booth”
Sneak Peek:
Some spaces are more cinematic than others. And few have enjoyed as much on-screen love as the phone booth. This essay looks at how phone booths have figured in cinema history, from offering sanctuary to inviting violence, to facilitating all manner of drama. The essay is a beautiful, surprisingly sincere send off to a relic that is fading from our sidewalks but will live on, on-screen.
Essay By:
This video comes courtesy of the fine folks over at Little White Lies, a film-obsessed magazine based in the United Kingdom. The above video was directed and written by Luís Azevedo and Jake Cunningham, respectfully. You can follow Little White Lies on Twitter here. And you can check out their official website here. You can subscribe to their YouTube account here.
