A film essay (or "cinematic essay") consists of the evolution of a theme or an idea rather than a plot

per se, or the film literally being a cinematic accompaniment to a narrator reading an essay. [24] From
another perspective, an essay film could be defined as a documentary film visual basis combined
with a form of commentary that contains elements of self-portrait (rather than autobiography), where
the signature (rather than the life story) of the filmmaker is apparent. The cinematic essay often
blends documentary, fiction, and experimental film making using tones and editing styles.[25]
The genre is not well-defined but might include propaganda works of early Soviet parliamentarians
like Dziga Vertov, present-day filmmakers including Chris Marker,[26] Michael Moore (Roger &
Me, Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11), Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line), Morgan
Spurlock (Supersize Me) and Agnès Varda. Jean-Luc Godard describes his recent work as "film-
essays".[27] Two filmmakers whose work was the antecedent to the cinematic essay include Georges
Méliès and Bertolt Brecht. Méliès made a short film (The Coronation of Edward VII (1902)) about the
1902 coronation of King Edward VII, which mixes actual footage with shots of a recreation of the
event. Brecht was a playwright who experimented with film and incorporated film projections into
some of his plays.[25] Orson Welles made an essay film in his own pioneering style, released in 1974,
called F for Fake, which dealt specifically with art forger Elmyr de Hory and with the themes of
deception, "fakery," and authenticity in general. These are often published online on video hosting
services.[28][29]
David Winks Gray's article "The essay film in action" states that the "essay film became an
identifiable form of filmmaking in the 1950s and '60s". He states that since that time, essay films
have tended to be "on the margins" of the filmmaking the world. Essay films have a "peculiar
searching, questioning tone ... between documentary and fiction" but without "fitting comfortably" into
either genre. Gray notes that just like written essays, essay films "tend to marry the personal voice of
a guiding narrator (often the director) with a wide swath of other voices". [30] The University of
Wisconsin Cinematheque website echoes some of Gray's comments; it calls a film essay an
"intimate and allusive" genre that "catches filmmakers in a pensive mood, ruminating on the margins
between fiction and documentary" in a manner that is "refreshingly inventive, playful, and
idiosyncratic".[31]