From Cauleen Smith’s trilogy on volcanos to Philippe Parreno’s intimate exploration of Goya, here’s what to watch.

The film was made to agitate for the release of the wrongly imprisoned Indigenous activist. Despite last-minute edits after his clemency, it still shows some cracks.

The documentary is an incisive critique of how cliché-bound the genre has become, encouraging viewers to ask more from it.

“The best film I could make was one that only I could tell as his son,” Tadashi Nakamura told Hyperallergic about legendary director Robert Nakamura.

Several nonfiction works playing at the festival are timely, whether in their current subject matter or relevant reflections on the past.

The visionary film director and artist was an institution unto himself — primarily of cinema, but also painting, music, photography, and culture at large.

Historically, cinema has invoked the architectural movement as an easy shorthand for villainy. In The Brutalist, though, it embodies a proletarian dream.

The filmmaker seems out of his depth in Theater of Thought, too willing to let his subjects make questionable claims without pushing back or delving deeper.

Killer bananas, Grand Theft Auto telephone poles, online gambling, and other ways to fill a little downtime.

A new documentary-game includes an interactive timeline, interviews, and of course, playable versions of the game.

An eclectic round-up spanning feature-length investigative documentaries, avant-garde short films, YouTube essays, and even talk shows. 

Each of the director’s films adapts a folktale, short story, or novel, or pays tribute to a historical figure — but never in a straightforward way.

“I wanted to question power,” Shiori Ito told Hyperallergic regarding her new documentary. “The system was always the focus.

Suburban Fury sits with Sara Jane Moore to learn how the politics and culture of the 1970s drove her toward Gerald Ford with a gun in her hand.

Intercepted pairs intercepted phone calls by Russian soldiers to friends and family back home with images of post-battle scenes around Ukraine.

Wang Bing’s trilogy about young workers skillfully compresses five years of footage, replicating the rhythm of long hours at work and brief respites at home.

This month: sneaky video games, fast fashion, a suspicious new trend in homeschooling, and more.

In the late 1980s and '90s, a wave of independent directors turned cameras on themselves, utilizing documentary as a mode of confession and self-reflection.

This month: Tetris competitions, “adulting” amusement parks, the pitfalls of activist art, and more.

Co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie discuss the making of their documentary Sugarcane, told from the perspective of Indigenous survivors.

Director Ibrahim Nash’at spent a year watching the Taliban transition from insurgency back to governance.

The film series showcases how different artists have used reenactments, preserving dialogue and audio but playing with every other element.

An algorithm organizes a unique ordering of scenes for each screening, meaning there are millions of versions of the film.

Director Junko Hirata delves deep into the history and influence of the pornographic art form without cheap tittering at its illicit imagery. 

One of the most underrated film festivals in New York, each year it presents an accessible and engaging collection of recent Japanese cinema.

Following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, filmmaker Yance Ford was struck by the question: “What, exactly, do the police exist to do?”

Plus, a tool set to make your own video essays.

Livestreaming, confessional monologues, and subjects’ willingness to let mass audiences surveil them all started here.

James Hamilton’s career conveniently mirrors the changing fortunes of journalism as an industry.

Alain Kassanda’s Coconut Head Generation is a testament to how young people find themselves through each other no matter the place, times, or means.

Ichirō Kataoka and Kumiko Ōmori tell Hyperallergic about the modern-day conventions and challenges of the Japanese art of narrating silent films.

This April: video essays on Palestine, AI, Nathan Fielder, and more.

Girls State follows a group of young women participating in the mock political program in Missouri just before the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

The Museum of the Moving Image’s annual experimental cinema event features several films that remix archival materials.

Donald Duck, Disney theme parks, and other excitement make up this month’s video essay roundup.

Brett Story’s Union demonstrates how the tedium of labor organizing can sometimes catalyze electric triumphs.

Two recently restored films by women directors offer differing snapshots of America of the 1970s and ’80s.

With new movies, shows, and such coming at a slow pace in January, here are some engaging video essays to keep you busy.

Two Sundance films ask all the wrong questions about artificial intelligence technology and its attendant issues.

Brian Eno, Christopher Reeve, and Frida Kahlo are among the subjects of the many artist documentaries at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

This month, a range of video essays about tech-related subjects and history.

"Filming in a kitchen is like working with a ballet or theater company," the filmmaker told Hyperallergic in an interview for the release of his new film Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros.

This month, we feature videos on criticism, artificial intelligence, social media, and more.

Subject’s premise is novel and has potential, but for all the film’s discussion of ethics, it has its own failings.

Pictures of Ghosts is concerned not just with how cinema makes memory tangible, but also how we historically have interacted with it. 

The festival’s Currents program deserves praise for its selection of risk-taking films.

With so many to sort through, here are some recommendations for the best recent video essays to check out.

The Boy and the Heron is an old man’s look back at a life spent crafting intricate worlds, now offering the tools to do so to the next generation.

In The Pigeon Tunnel, documentarian Errol Morris attempts to suss out what makes the famed spy novelist tick.

Michal Weits's Blue Box, in which she grapples with her great-grandfather's role in the mass displacement of Palestinians, doesn't go quite far enough.