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Press Play

 "The best video essay source on the web." (Roger Ebert) This web site is built on a mix of original video essays and critical, personal writing about film, TV, and their connection to broader cultural concerns. Co-founded by Matt Zoller Seitz, TV critic for New York Magazine, and Ken Cancelosi, it is overseen by Editor-in-Chief Max Winter.

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VIDEO - THREE REASONS: BATTLE ROYALE, a HUNGER GAMES for Grownups

Video
With Hollywood poised and ready to drop the next big book-to-screen adaptation on March 23, The Hunger Games will be the latest tween sci-fi/fantasy franchise to wipe moviegoer's minds of wand-waving witches and vapid vampires. But I feel like I've already seen it, and not because the trailer spelled it out for me.
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  • By Robert Nishimura
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  • March 20, 2012 12:49 PM
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  • 9 Comments
More: video essay, THREE REASONS (Robert Nishimura)

VIDEO: Motion Studies #2: A Diary on David Holzman

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This video essay links an under-seen 1967 American independent film with the current wave of reality TV and video blogs that pervade contemporary culture.
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  • By Volker Pantenburg and Kevin B. Lee
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  • March 20, 2012 8:57 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: video essay, Motion Studies, MOTION STUDIES: ESSENTIAL VIDEO ESSAYS

VIDEO - Motion Studies #1: The Substance of Style

Video
A sampling of exemplary works from the emerging genre of online video essays on cinema. What better way to kick off the series than with an opening credit sequence, unpacked in such a way that can only be done via video essay?
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  • By Volker Pantenburg and Kevin B. Lee
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  • March 19, 2012 12:05 PM
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  • 3 Comments
More: video essay, Matthew Zoller Seitz, Motion Studies, MOTION STUDIES: ESSENTIAL VIDEO ESSAYS

AUDIOVISUALCY: A New Press Play Column

Video
The Audiovisualcy column on Press Play is a collaboration between Press Play's editors, Audioisualcy curator Catherine Grant, and a series of guest contributors, who will take turns to pick particular video essays and to discuss what it is that we like and value about them.
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  • By Catherine Grant
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  • March 15, 2012 2:21 PM
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  • 0 Comments
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VIDEO ESSAY: Kevin Brownlow, Film Essay Pioneer, on D.W. Griffith

Video
Next week the San Francisco Silent Film Festival will present the complete 5 1/2 hour version of Abel Gance’s epic Napoleon. It is truly a singular event: Due to the expense, technical challenges, and complicated rights issues involved, no screenings are planned for any other American city. This monumental event is being presented by SFSFF in association with American Zoetrope, The Film Preserve, Photoplay Productions, and the British Film Institute.
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  • By Kevin B. Lee
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  • March 15, 2012 8:27 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: video essay, Kevin B. Lee

VIDEO ESSAY: American Harmony

Video
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  • By Nelson Carvajal
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  • March 14, 2012 9:49 AM
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  • 2 Comments
More: Harmony Korine, video essay, NELSON CARVAJAL

VIDEO ESSAY: Looking vs. Touching

Video
Two European-set love stories separated by nearly a century, Lady Chatterley and In the City of Sylvia share a fascination with the art and practice of “looking.” This video essay picks up on a special connection between these two films.
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  • By Kevin B. Lee
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  • March 7, 2012 2:17 PM
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  • 0 Comments
More: video essay, Kevin B. Lee

VIDEO: Hal Hartley's Must-See Moments

Video
Hal Hartley’s newest film Meanwhile is said to be about a man who can do everything from plumbing to international finance to novel-writing, but who can’t seem to find “success.” But how do we measure success? In a quarter century of iconoclastic filmmaking, Hal Hartley has redefined the “achievement” as it pertains to film. As Meanwhile makes its debut at IFC center Wednesday, February 29, we celebrate several of Hartley’s films with a tribute to classic Hartley moments, especially from his excellent 1991 film, Surviving Desire.
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  • By Kevin B. Lee
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  • February 28, 2012 12:49 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: video essay, Kevin B. Lee

VIDEO - THREE REASONS: King Vidor's THE CROWD

Video
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Contributor Robert Nishimura's video series Three Reasons continues with King Vidor's The Crowd. He feels this film deserves attention in light of the Best Picture Oscar for The Artist and is a perfect candidate for restoration and release on the Criterion label.]
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  • By Robert Nishimura
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  • February 27, 2012 11:54 AM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Michel Hazanavicius, video essay, THREE REASONS (Robert Nishimura)

VIDEO ESSAY: AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN HOLLYWOOD: HORROR, MAKEUP AND THE OSCARS

Video
The practitioners of visual effects have a favorite phrase for what they do: the Invisible Art – effects that are imaginative, even astonishing, but that are ultimately there to sell a world, a character or a moment. Special makeup might be the best illustration of this principle. One of makeup's greatest triumphs is An American Werewolf in London, which in 1982 became the first film to win an Oscar for makeup in regular competition. Overseen by Rick Baker, who supervised all of the film's makeup effects, it shows a man changing into a werewolf in real time…right in front of your eyes. This sequence was the culmination of eight decades of movie makeup. And the film's Oscar represented a coming-out for a once-neglected aspect of filmmaking.
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  • By Aaron Aradillas, Matt Zoller Seitz & Ken Cancelosi
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  • February 24, 2012 1:15 PM
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  • 0 Comments
More: Academy Awards, An American Werewolf in London, Ken Cancelosi, Matthew Zoller Seitz, Aaron Aradillas, video essay

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