Kogonada

Kogonada made his first video essay "Breaking Bad // POV" in January 2012. Using clips from the American television series Breaking Bad, the video displays the series' use of numerous point of view shots from unusual angles and objects. Kogonada was inspired to create the video essay while he watched the series, noticing a recurring visual aesthetic used throughout the series.[3][4]

Kogonada's first commissioned work was for Sight & Sound magazine in February 2013, titled "The World According to Koreeda Hirokazu", which highlights director Hirokazu's regular focus on everyday life in his films.[4][5] Since then, most of his video essays are commissions for companies which include the British Film Institute (publisher of Sight & Sound),[6] The Criterion Collection,[7] Samsung,[8] and the Lincoln Motor Company.[9] Kogonada's works are part of a growing movement of creating video essays as a visual form of analysis, appreciation, and criticism on the internet,[10][11] with other known creators of video essays including Nelson Carvajal and Tony Zhou,[12][13] as well as film critics Kevin B. Lee, Matt Zoller Seitz and Scout Tafoya.[14][15][16] His video essay "Hands of Bresson" was chosen by filmmaker Robert Greene for Sight & Sound as one of the best documentaries of 2014, with Greene stating that works like his "make clear that the line between nonfiction film and video essay is at best blurry and the best work should simply be celebrated as cinema."[17] In March 2016, Kogonada was part of the official jury for the 16th LPA Film Festival at the Canary Islands, Spain, where he taught a master class and had screenings for 14 of his video essays at the "Bande à part" section.[2][18][19]

Kogonada's video essays about influential film directors include[20]

• Breaking Bad: POV (2011)[21]
• Wes Anderson: From Above (2011)[21]
• Quentin Tarantino: From Below (2011)[21]
• Sounds of Aronofsky (2012)[20][21]
• Kubrick: One-Point Perspective (2012)[20][21]
• Ozu: Passageways (2012)[20][21]
• The World According to Koreeda Hirokazu (2013)[20][1][21]
• Malick: Fire & Water (2013)[20][21]
• What Is Neorealism? (2013)[20][1]
• Linklater: On Cinema & Time (2013)[20][1][21]
• Wes Anderson: Centered (2014)[20][21]
• The Fox & Mr. Anderson (2014)[22]
• Hands of Bresson (2014)[20][23]
• Eyes of Hitchcock (2014)[20][23]
• Trick or Truth (2014)[20][22]
• Auteur in Space (2015)[20][21]
• Mirrors of Bergman (2015)[20][23]
• Godard in Fragments (2016)[20][23]
• Way of Ozu (2016)[20][21]
• Once There Was Everything (2017)[23]
• Nothing at Stake (2020)[24]

Kogonada's video essays typically showcase a particular theme or aesthetic regularly used by a filmmaker either throughout a filmography or within a single work.[4] Some examples are his three video essays on the aesthetics of American director Wes Anderson, who is known for using unusually symmetrical framing in his films.[25][26][27]

His video essays are formed through the juxtaposition of images, conveying thoughts through a particular arrangement of clips.[28] In an interview for Nashville Scene in March 2015, Kogonada likened creating video essays with preparing sushi: "With sushi, every cut matters. And so do the ingredients. Those two ongoing choices are the difference. What you select, and how you cut it." In comparing written essays with visual essays, Kogonada noted how words form precise observations of ideas, while visuals could convey a particular idea without providing a definite explanation. He explained that "[i]f you want to delve deep into theory, texts are the perfect medium .... However, when I'm making visual essays, I treat words as supplementary."[4]

Kogonada's identity is nearly unknown, wishing to keep his identity anonymous, although he does attend screenings of his works. He explained in an interview through e-mail for Filmmaker Magazine: "I like Chris Marker's idea about your work being your work. I’ve also never identified much with my American name, which always feels a little strange to see or hear .... And I'm quite fond of heteronyms."[28] The moniker is taken from Kogo Noda, frequent screenwriter for Yasujiro Ozu's films.[29]

• Thomas Elsaesser, Malte Hagener, Film Theory: An Introduction through the Senses, 2nd, Routledge, 2015, 246 p; ISBN 1317581148, ISBN 9781317581147.
• For the Love of Cinema: Teaching Our Passion In and Outside the Classroom / Rashna Wadia Richards, David T. Johnson, Indiana University Press, 2017, p. 185; ISBN 0253030129, ISBN 9780253030122.

• Official website
• Kogonada at IMDb
• Kogonada's channel on Vimeo