One of the most promising ways of going ‘beyond the essay film’ that we have witnessed over the last decade is that of the audiovisual scholarly essay, or videographic film studies. Taking the field of audiovisual production as its sole, albeit complex and diverse, object of interest, the audiovisual essay uses the possibilities of the medium itself to conduct a range of analytical, critical, reflexive, or aesthetic procedures on this object, resulting in an impressive array of ‘works’. Its genealogical link to the essay film in all these respects is evident and has been widely acknowledged. Arguably, the audiovisual essay has emerged from the productive encounter between cinephilia and the analytical impulse to investigate those parameters of cinematic experience, that, in Paul Willemen's words, often ‘escape the existing networks of critical discourse and theoretical frameworks’. Capitalizing on the new technical possibilities afforded by the digital revolution, the burgeoning and varied field of audiovisual criticism operates at the intersection of film theory, pedagogy, and creative practice, producing hundreds of works, dedicated online platforms that curate and present such works, and an ever growing array of names carrying an impressive cache of audiographic auteurism.

However, theorizations of the audiovisual critical essay have been lagging behind its practical experiments. This chapter therefore aims to situate current discussion of the genre within a longer history of 20th-century film-making and scholarship and asks, specifically, how the legacy of the Russian montage school of cinema can inform an understanding of the audiovisual essay.