The essay film has long reflected upon reality through images, but how does it reflect upon a world whose determining forces operate beyond what images can show? This is what Jussi Parikka calls the invisual: it describes not merely images hidden from our eyes, but a system of data, labor and algorithmic operations that determine what and how images are seen while remaining out of view. Under this condition, the essayists' classic tools of close visual analysis may no longer suffice. This keynote considers new approaches for the essay film to respond to the invisual, drawing on two of the filmmaker's recent works alongside short films by Ariane Papillon and Fırat Yücel. These works chart the invisual operations of image production and consumption, and propose new configurations of analysis, affect and poetry for the essay film as an evolving register of audiovisual thinking.