The availability of films on DVD and via online sources, together with the proliferation of inexpensive and easily usable video editing software allow for unprecedented access to the close study and manipulation of film. One result of this has been the recent prominence of the video essay, or audio-visual film criticism. With these new technologies, film scholars, artists and cinephiles are able to rework filmic material, adding imagery or voice-over narration in order to perform critical analysis of the moving image using the medium itself. My project focuses on the video essay as an
emerging form of criticism in order to explore and clarify the different paradigms evident in such work. I will also assess the potential value this form of criticism may have for film scholarship.