Matt Parry

My name is Matt Parry. I am a scholar of German experimental and non-narrative cinema, and hold a Judy and Nigel Weiss Studentship at Robinson College, Cambridge. My current doctoral project – supervised by Dr Leila Mukhida – focuses on the experimental cinema of the GDR, and explores how the East German avant-garde’s unique and highly intermedial aesthetic of motion functioned as a way for filmmakers to engage in the various discourses of motion which formed the basis of much of East Germany’s social and political debates. The project’s interdisciplinary focus on motion aims to open up new understandings of how avant-garde cinema interacts with the wider environments in which it is made and performed, both within and beyond a specifically German context. My broader research interests encompass a wide range of subjects including dance studies, phenomenology and the senses, animation, metaphysics, and sound studies.

Prior to my PhD I was based at St John’s College, Cambridge, where I was awarded an MPhil in Film and Screen Studies (Distinction) and a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages (First Class). During this time, I also completed an Erasmus placement at the Humboldt University in Berlin. My writing on artists such as Lutz Dammbeck, Walter Ruttmann, and Konrad Wolf has been awarded numerous academic accolades such as the Larmor Award and Marsh Prize, and has been presented in a number of student journals and conferences.