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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.

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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 NotebookObscur, 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staff writer at Unpublished Magazine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 MagazineMay 2022

Stella Dallas - Wasteland ArtsMarch 2022

 

Duel - Wasteland ArtsDecember 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 ArtsSeptember 2021

Clotheslines Wasteland ArtsJuly 2021

Robert Altman's '3 Women' and the Allure of Imitation - Obscur Magazine, June 2021

Fake Fruit Factory Wasteland ArtsJune 2021

1968 Wasteland ArtsMay 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 

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