Essay Film Movies

Filmmaker John Torres describes his childhood and discusses his father's infidelities.

While Trevor and Sam are smoking pot, Trevor’s mom comes home. When she finds out, Trevor reveals his father’s adulterous ways and...

Engel und Puppe is the first film by Italian filmmaker and writer Ellis Donda. Screened at Oberhausen in 1975, Engel und Puppe is a political...

A personal and subjective video essay series on the Korean cinema, consisting of 9 episodes. Its episodes include fragments of memory about Korean...

Essay film from Czech director Vojtech Jasný on his home country.

Film critic James Quandt looks at Alain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad in 26 different ways, each corresponding to a letter in the alphabet

The film is an insight into a teacher's soul and a contemplation upon his teaching fate. This portrait of a unique, experimental filmmaker and...

To My Motherland is an experimental personal essay film that blends personal photographs and home videos to explore the complexities of immigration,...

The images from the landing of the first expedition of the spaceship Columbia are juxtaposed to a reflection on the function of the visual medium,...

A found-footage essay, Filmfarsi salvages low budget thrillers and melodramas suppressed following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The second part of the endless series about Moravia offers an even darker descent into the soul of Moravia, which is, however, intoxicating like a...

An innocent essay in a college-creative writing class sets off a terrifying and deadly chain of events. Will they be able to stop her, or will she...

A film essay that approaches cinema as a water current, revisiting a body of previous essay films through the recurring image of water—rivers,...

Experimental documentary dissecting artistic inspiration through raw imagery and collage, aiming to answer a defining question for artists: What to...

Two quotes from Paul Valéry: "Humanity is threatened by two dangers: order and disorder." and "Nothing is more contrary to your nature than to...

In the idyllic world of Israeli kibbutzim everything has its own pace. There’s a time for work and for rest. There’s a time for fun too,...

Depicting the biography of a corrupt banker poses a cinematic dilemma. How can the intentions of an individual systematic contexts and historical...

A mythic narrative inspired by the common threads of Arnold Schwarzenegger's filmography and biographical trajectory.

In a world bedazzled by intractable images, do we need the essay film now more than ever? Kevin B. Lee weighs up this distinctively self-aware,...

A film-maker travels through mountain villages and along the shores of Alpine lakes to investigate the disappearance of Valérie 20 years...