Video Essays Desktop Films Future of Cinema About
Kevin B. Lee

Kevin B. Lee

I am a filmmaker, media artist, and scholar recognized for pioneering the online video essay and the "desktop documentary" format. Over the past two decades, I have produced nearly 400 video essays exploring new ways of thinking about film, media, and digital images.

My works—including Transformers: The Premake and my recent feature Afterlives—have screened at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Berlinale, Rotterdam, DocLisboa, and the BFI London Film Festival.

Since 2022, I have served as the Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema and the Audiovisual Arts at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI).

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"Locarno 2025: Future Frequencies"Documentary.org, Jul 2025
"Kevin B. Lee on desktop pasts and cinema futures"Interview for Kinoki, Jul 2024
"Kevin B. Lee at USI: Facing the Future of Cinema"USI News, Oct 2023
"Nourished by Time: Facing the Future of Cinema with Locarno's Kevin B. Lee"Arta Barzanji, MUBI, Oct 2023
"Where next for cinema?"Geoffrey Macnab, Screen International, Aug 2023
"I film dell'intelligenza artificiale"Interview with LaRegione, Jul 2023
"All the world's a stage IFFR Critics' Choice 9: PLAY"Tara Judah, Senses of Cinema, May 2023
"How Can One Be Farocki?"Rembert Hueser, Bloomsbury, May 2023
"Le immagini sono il vero linguaggio comunicativo dei giovani e del futuro"Viviana Viri, Corriere del Ticino, Mar 2023
"L'intelligenza artificiale ci sta trasformando"Ticino Digital Business, Feb 2023
Future of Cinema: From Locarno to LASwissnex San Francisco, Oct 2025
Future of RealityLocarno Film Festival, Aug 2025 — Curated and led conference
Key Words for Key FilmsMuseo Nazionale del Cinema, Torino, Jun 2025
Les chambres obscures de l'IA #3with Johannes Binotto & Evelyn Kreutzer, Jeu de Paume, Paris, May 2025
Expanded Screens: The Video EssayMuseum of the Moving Image, New York, Jan 2025
Conference: The Future of SurvivalLocarno Film Festival / USI, Aug 2024
Key Words for Key FilmsMuseo Nazionale del Cinema, Turin, from Apr 2024 — Multi-screen video essay exhibition
The Video Essay Gallerywith Chloé Galibert-Laîné & Johannes Binotto, Filmexplorer
Tsai Ming-liang: Moving PortraitsIl Rivellino Gallery, Locarno, 2023 — Curator
Exhibition Hito Steyerl, "Social Sim"Il Rivellino, Locarno Film Festival, Aug 2022
The Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlistwith Will DiGravio & Cydnii Wilde Harris, 2020
Chinese Realities, Documentary VisionsMuseum of Modern Art, New York, 2013
Conference & Screening: The Future of Cinema: From Locarno to LAUCLA Film & Television Archive, Los Angeles, Oct 2025
Talk & Screening: KhartoumFilm Festival Diritti Umani Lugano, USI, Oct 2025
Public Talk & Screening: AI Film NowUSI, Lugano, Oct 2025
Workshop: Site-based Videographic Methods for Film Festival Researchwith Kreutzer, Cipelletti, Grizzaffi — NECS Conference, Lisbon, Jun 2025
Conference: Towards a Generative Archival PracticeEthics & Aesthetics of Artificial Images (EA–AI), IUAV Venezia, May 2025
Conference: Videographic Criticism as DisseminationSCMS Annual Conference, Chicago, Apr 2025
Screening series & Discussion: Expanded Screens: The Video Essaywith DiGravio, Gibbs, Kreutzer, Oliva — Museum of the Moving Image, New York, Jan 2025
Presentation: Viewing with Care: Videographic Afterlives of Extremist MediaAmerican Historical Association Annual Meeting, New York, Jan 2025
Conference: The Generative Afterlives of Problematic ArchivesIf AI Was the Answer…, Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Nov 2024
Keynote: Navigational Approaches to Essay CinemaXIII AIM International Conference, Porto, May 2024
Presentation: The Ecology of Science FictionWoche der Kritik, Berlin, Feb 2024
"Meet the Media Guru" — KeynoteMEET Digital Culture Center, Milan, 2023
"Future of Film Festivals" — MasterclassBerlinale Talents, Berlin, 2023
Conversation with Hito Steyerl: On the Future of CinemaLocarno Film Festival, 2022
"The Spaces of the Video Essay" — KeynoteAccademia della Architettura, Mendrisio, 2022

My critical thinking about cinema was shaped most significantly by Jonathan Rosenbaum, whose writing I discovered in 2002 and whose Essential Cinema (2004) remains the most honest attempt I know to account for what cinema has actually been — as opposed to what the market decides it should be remembered as.

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About.txt
Kevin B. Lee

Kevin B. Lee

Filmmaker, media artist, and scholar. Pioneer of the video essay and desktop documentary format.

Position: Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema at USI (since 2022)

kevin@alsolikelife ~ % whoami
Kevin B. Lee
Filmmaker · Media Artist · Scholar

kevin@alsolikelife ~ % cat career.txt
# Video Essays
~400 works produced (2007–present)
Pioneer of the desktop documentary format

# Screenings
MoMA, Berlinale, Rotterdam, BFI London

# Current
AFTERLIVES (2025) — Feature documentary

kevin@alsolikelife ~ %
Contact: alsolikelife at gmail dot com
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