UNIVERSIT Y
COLLEGE
LONDON
Elena
Voss
|
MA
Film
Studies
|
September
2026
Entry
I
still
remember
the
exact
moment
I
understood
film
as
a
language
rather
than
mere
entertainment
.
I
was
fifteen
,
watching
Andrei
Tarkovsky
'
s
Mirror
on
a
deteriorating
VHS
copy
in
my
grandmother
'
s
apartment
in
Sofia
.
The
sequence
of
the
burning
barn
did
not
simply
depict
a
fire
;
it
compressed
time
,
memory
,
and
guilt
into
a
single
gesture
of
light
.
That
experience
taught
me
that
cinema
is
a
form
of
thinking
,
and
it
set
me
on
a
path
that
has
defined
my
intellectual
life
ever
since
.
During
my
undergraduate
degree
in
Comparative
Literature
at
the
University
of
Manchester
,
I
pursued
every
opportunity
to
engage
with
visual
culture
.
My
final
year
dissertation
,
which
received
First
Class
Honours
,
examined
the
use
of
off
-
screen
space
in
the
films
of
Claire
Denis
and
Lucrecia
Martel
.
I
argued
that
their
refusal
to
show
the
colonial
or
patriarchal
violence
explicitly
described
by
characters
forces
the
spectator
to
become
an
accomplice
in
the
act
of
looking
.
Working
in
the
university
'
s
Special
Collections
department
,
I
uncovered
a
series
of
unpublished
production
stills
from
Denis
'
s
Beau
Travail
that
reshaped
my
argument
about
military
choreography
as
spatial
control
.
This
process
taught
me
that
film
scholarship
demands
both
theoretical
rigour
and
archival
patience
.
Beyond
the
classroom
,
I
sought
practical
contexts
in
which
to
test
my
ideas
.
For
two
years
I
served
as
editor
of
Polygon
,
the
student
film
journal
,
where
I
commissioned
essays
on
topics
ranging
from
the
temporality
of
slow
cinema
to
the
racial
politics
of
dubbing
.
I
also
co
-
curated
a
screening
series
titled
Invisible
Labour
:
Women
and
Studio
Systems
,
which
brought
together
restored
prints
of
Dorothy
Arzner
'
s
films
alongside
contemporary
video
essays
.
Securing
archival
prints
and
negotiating
screening
rights
required
attention
to
detail
I
had
not
previously
needed
,
but
it
also
revealed
how
institutions
preserve
and
restrict
access
to
cinematic
history
.
These
experiences
convinced
me
that
my
future
lies
at
the
intersection
of
academic
research
and
curatorial
practice
.
My
current
research
interests
centre
on
what
I
term
the
post
-
cinematic
condition
:
the
ways
streaming
platforms
,
algorithmic
recommendation
engines
,
and
mobile
viewing
have
altered
not
only
distribution
but
spectatorship
itself
.
I
am
particularly
drawn
to
the
work
of
scholars
such
as
D
.
N
.
Rodowick
and
Frances
Cowan
,
who
map
the
transition
from
photochemical
to
digital
ontology
without
reducing
the
latter
to
a
simple
technological
upgrade
.
In
my
postgraduate
work
,
I
hope
to
investigate
how
platform
interfaces
generate
new
forms
of
narrative
comprehension
.
Does
the
thumbnail
image
on
a
streaming
menu
function
as
a
micro
-
trailer
,
a
genre
marker
,
or
a
branding
device
?
Such
questions
require
methods
from
media
studies
,
cognitive
psychology
,
and
design
history
,
and
I
am
eager
to
develop
an
interdisciplinary
toolkit
that
can
address
them
.
I
am
applying
to
the
MA
in
Film
Studies
at
University
College
London
because
the
programme
offers
precisely
the
combination
of
historical
depth
and
theoretical
innovation
I
require
.
The
Centre
for
Multidisciplinary
and
Intercultural
Inquiry
provides
a
rare
space
in
which
cinema
can
be
studied
alongside
philosophy
and
cultural
history
without
diluting
disciplinary
specificity
.
I
am
especially
keen
to
work
with
faculty
specialising
in
transnational
cinema
and
digital
aesthetics
,
and
to
make
use
of
the
Special
Collections
at
Senate
House
Library
.
The
option
to
write
a
dissertation
alongside
a
practical
curatorial
project
aligns
perfectly
with
my
dual
ambitions
of
doctoral
research
and
future
work
in
film
archiving
.
1 / 2
Ultimately
,
I
see
film
studies
not
as
an
escape
from
the
present
but
as
a
vital
means
of
understanding
it
.
Cinema
archives
our
collective
desires
and
anxieties
,
and
the
task
of
the
scholar
is
to
read
those
archives
critically
.
I
bring
to
this
programme
a
strong
foundation
in
textual
analysis
,
proven
experience
in
curatorial
work
,
and
an
unwavering
belief
that
the
moving
image
remains
the
most
powerful
tool
we
have
for
imagining
other
ways
of
being
.
I
hope
you
will
consider
my
application
.
2 / 2
