The Essay Library
The Essay Library is a Discord server for video essay creators and viewers to chat about all things video essays. It's also the official server of r/videoessay. Click here to join The Essay Library on Discord. Links:
The Essay Library YouTube Channel
Beginner's Guide to Discord (from Discord Support)
r/videoessay subredditAccolades:
The Exquisite Relay: An Essay Library Co-Construction was praised as a "fascinating experiment in essay structure" in "The best video essays of 2022" (Sight and Sound).The Essay Library Anthology Vols. 2 + 3 received a special mention from the curators of "The best video essays of 2021" (Sight and Sound).The Essay Library Anthology
Compilations of 60-second micro-essays around a given theme.
Volume 1 | "Beginnings" (2021)
Volume 2 | "Time" (2021)
Volume 3 | "Death" (2021)
Volume 4 | "We Asked A Bot To Name 18 Video Essays" (2022)
Volume 5 | "Secrets" (2023)Other Collaborations
"Tales from the Essay Library: Rom-Com" - creating video essays based on each other's romantic comedy film recommendations. Coming soon!"The Exquisite Relay: An Essay Library Co-Construction" - a videographic twist on the exquisite corpse featuring two video essays made one minute at a time. The first video was made forward, the second backward. Each creator had four days to do their part before passing it on to the next person. Mentioned in Sight and Sound."Tales from the Essay Library: Horror" - eight video essayists created work based on each other's horror movie recommendations. This essay chain had a time constraint of 5 minutes per essay.The best way to get in touch with the Essay Library moderation team is by joining the Discord server, but you can also contact us using the form below.
Every week, one member of the server is chosen at random to choose a video essay for others to watch. In doing this, we can learn how to improve our own videos. With its wide range of selections, this has prompted us to interrogate what defines a video essay. Are all of these works even video essays? The #essay-of-the-week channel is home to these discussions.Essays are chosen by different members in order to get a diversity of ideas. The videos below do not necessarily reflect the views of the mod team.
Taskmaster: A Masterpiece Of Existentialist Philosophy: Sartre, Kierkegaard, Camus & Horne
Hermit Banana Monster
The Complex Problems with Mental Illness in Fiction
Hello Future Me
Control, Anatomy, and the Legacy of the Haunted House
Jacob Geller
Dead Doesn't Mean Gone - A Haunting of Bly Manor Video Essay
Ladyknightthebrave
What Makes a Video Game Sublime? Kant's Philosophy in Video Games
Gamedenker
Liminal Spaces (Exploring an Altered Reality)
Solar Sands
Monsters University and Disability
The Sin Squad
Scambaiting and the Robot of Global Capitalism
Big Joel
In Praise of Chairs
Every Frame a Painting
Why Generation 5 isn't as Bad as People Think
NateWantsToBattle
Overthinking It: Calvin & Hobbes | Separating Consumption From Identity
RomanBear Productions
How To Be Creative: How an Artist Turns Pro
Storytellers
Hayao Miyazaki - How Animation Comes To Life
kaptainkristian
Inextinguishable Fire
Harun Farocki
Ocean Waves - Studio Ghibli's (Accidental) Queer Film
eliquorice
Sonic Adventure 2 - A Postmodern Analysis
Jonas Čeika - CCK Philosophy
Sofia Coppola: The Politics of Pretty
Broey Deschanel
What Makes Satisfying Videos Satisfying? Capitalism.
Jordan Schonig
This Movie Offends You? Good.
Foundation for Economic Education
Monster Men: The Bureau
Curio
The History of Tomorrowland 1955
Defunctland
My Mulholland
Jessica McGoff
No Face is an Incel
CJ The X
What to Do If You Run Out of Hope
Pursuit of Wonder