Hi - I'm Jessica, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge.
I read English (BA) at the University of Kent and Film Aesthetics (MSt) at the University of Oxford. In 2023, I joined Cambridge as a doctoral student of Film and Screen Studies, generously funded by a Cambridge Trust Vice-Chancellor's Award and Newnham College Scholarship.
My research focuses on 'loose' film style and its effects within the narrative film. I aim to demonstrate that a 'looser' aesthetic (referring to performance, direction, dialogue, editing, camerawork, narrative structure, or scene continuity, as distinct from that seen in 'open' or 'slow' cinemas) can usefully categorise various stylistic approaches to narrative filmmaking, and that its ascription and evaluation can freshly illuminate even well-studied films and filmmakers.
My thesis intersects various other research interests, including film aesthetics, slow cinema, cinéma vérité, the filmography of John Cassavetes, the New Hollywood, the cinema and writing of Chantal Akerman, narratology, the cinema of Jacques Rivette, philosophy of art, screen studies, modernism, approaches to narrative editing, reflexivity, film interpretation and criticism, visual narration, and the philosophy of film.
Outside academia, I am the founding editor-in-chief of Wasteland Arts and manage Wasteland's website and newsletter; I have attended film festivals as a press delegate and worked as a pre-selection juror; and I have contributed essays on literature and film for various editorial outlets, including MUBI Notebook. Between degrees, I have also worked as a private literature tutor and in administration at the University of Oxford.

editorial
editor-in-chief of Wasteland Arts
September 2018 - Present
newsletter editor of Wasteland Arts
March 2020 - Present
designer for Wasteland Arts
December 2021 - Present
freelance writer (MUBI Notebook, Obscur, The Isis, etc)
August 2020 - Present
staff critic at Cineccentric
August 2020 - Present
section editor of Cherwell
June 2021 - December 2021
press delegate for BFI's 64th, 65th and 66th London Film Festival, BFI Flare, and Long Distance Film Festival
October 2020 - October 2022
pre-selector for Cornwall Film Festival
May 2021 - August 2021
staff writer at Unpublished Magazine
August 2020 - June 2021
selected writing
essays / articles
Looking Beyond Borders with Arms Outstretched - The Isis Magazine, May 2022
Stella Dallas - Wasteland Arts, March 2022
Duel - Wasteland Arts, December 2021
Let's Scare Jessica to Death - Wasteland Arts, October 2021
Zola - Cherwell, September 2021
The Age of Innocence - Wasteland Arts, September 2021
The Woman with Two Heads - Wasteland Arts, September 2021
Clotheslines - Wasteland Arts, July 2021
Robert Altman's '3 Women' and the Allure of Imitation - Obscur Magazine, June 2021
Fake Fruit Factory - Wasteland Arts, June 2021
1968 - Wasteland Arts, May 2021
Close-Up - Wasteland Arts, March 2021
Wanda - Wasteland Arts, March 2021
Slouching Towards Nowhere: The Graduate - Cineccentric, February 2021
Betty Blue - Wasteland Arts, February 2021
Synthetically Eroded: the Femme Fatale in Double Indemnity and Chinatown - Wasteland Arts, January 2021
Visualizing Liberation in "But I'm a Cheerleader" - MUBI Notebook, December 2020
Eyes Wide Shut - Wasteland Arts, October 2020
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - Wasteland Arts, June 2020
collaborations
The Films of Abbas Kiarostami - Cineccentric, June 2021
Discussing Vagabond - Cineccentric, March 2021
Short Films from the BFI London Film Festival - Cineccentric, November 2020
design
contact info:
For inquiries regarding Wasteland, editorial work, festival coverage, writing, or anything related, get in touch at jssmmoore@gmail.com