If you ever begin to think that filmic analysis and proper intellectual engagement with film has died in the Youtube era, have a gander at this. I know it’s a bit lazy of me just to flag these videos up without commenting much, but this analysis of the political, historical and racial dimensions of Gone With The Wind really is impressive. It’s a long two part film, but it’s worth sticking with, not least for the light it sheds on American culture, both historical and contemporary. Here, an extremely knowledgeable, articulate young american skilfully employs modern web video techniques to create a very detailed exploration of one of cinema’s classic texts. The depth he goes into wouldn’t be out of place in a book by, say, Murray Pomerance or David Bordwell, yet in his video he uses clips from all kinds of places, as you find fans doing. I know I’ve flagged videos like this up two or three times recently, but I’m becoming more and more impressed with the stuff I’m seeing on Youtube about film. Of course, by no means is it all up to this standard, yet there seems to be an effort in the online cinephile community to make deeper, more intellectually engaging output, and that this output is becoming just as detailed and cerebrally rich as it’s offline equivalent.