This video essay by Dream Dimension Productions is one of the coolest video essays I’ve seen recently. The whole video is a mixture between clips of Richard Linklater movies and interviews with Linklater himself. There is no other VoiceOver, text, or explanation behind the clips besides these interviews. Linklater talks about how he sees movies as moments and the plot is only the vehicle to express those moments. He discusses how everything is inherently autobiographical because life is also just a series of moments and cycles so all art draws from those moments and experiences and that is what makes movies so enjoyable to watch. Essentially his argument is that movies are about emotions and those emotions are prompted by certain moments that remind us of our own lives and not really the plot itself.

I think the use of the Linklater interviews as the main explanatory function of the video essay is super cool. Dream Dimension Productions does a really good job of finding moments from Linklater movies that work well with the overarching interviews and show the autobiographical elements of his movies. He includes a clip from Before Midnight where Ethan Hawkes character discusses how everything is autobiographical, a clip from Slacker where Linklater himself explains how every moment and decision of your life is crucial. It just does such a good job at illustrating the unifying themes within Linklater’s body of work while using his own voice to do it. It’s just awesome. I think the best part of this video essay is the way the tone mimics that of a Linklater movie, with the background music and all the clips, the viewer feels all the emotional weight. It almost feels like the 10 second flashing before your eyes of your life before you die, which is exactly how a Linklater movie is supposed to feel, like a series of moments.