Sam Warnock

Thesis title: The Anti-Cinema of Yoshida Kijū and Okada Mariko: Form, Genre, and Politics

Background

Sam is a third year PhD student in Film Studies. His research project focusses on the films of Japanese filmmaker Yoshida Kijū and actress Okada Mariko with an emphasis on gender, sexuality, and melodrama.

Qualifications

BA in Global Cinema | First | University of Stirling (2015-2019)

MRes in Humanities (Film Studies) | Distinction | University of Stirling (2019-2020)

Undergraduate teaching

Tutor in Film Studies: Introduction to European Cinema (2023-)

Research summary

Sam's research project focusses on the films of Yoshida Kijū and will also explore the filmmaker's writings on the concept of anti-cinema. The project will develop Yoshida's writing into a methodological framework suitable for looking at his films, with a particular emphasis on subjectivity, gender, and politics. 

Current research interests

Post-War Japanese Cinema, Japanese New Wave, Melodrama, Gender and Sexuality, Politics and Aesthetics, Avant-Garde Cinema

Past research interests

Slow Cinema, European Cinema, Boredom

Current project grants

Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Studentship - 2022-24
Great Britain Sasakawa Research Grant - 'The Films of Yoshida Kijū and Okada Mariko: Form, Genre, and Politics' (2024-25)

Papers delivered

Challenging the System: The Films of Yoshida Kijū and Okada Mariko - Kinema Club Symposium, University of Sheffield, June 2024

The Transgressive Heroines of Okada Mariko - Transgressive Women in East Asian Screen Cultures Symposium, Cardiff University, May 2024

Subverting the Post-War Melodrama: Yoshida Kijū's Akitsu Springs - II World Cinema International Conference: Cinema of Japan, University Complutense of Madrid, September 2023

Returning the Gaze: Subjectivity and Autonomy in Yoshida Kijū's Woman of the Lake - European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS), August 2023

Dissolving History: Imagined Spaces in Yoshida Kijū's Political Trilogy - Borders, Boundaries, Fringes Symposium (SCRIF), University of Sheffield, June 2023