Lior Perelsztejn is a Ph.D. student in the Cinema & Media Studies program at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He holds a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree with highest distinction in Cinema Studies from the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University. During his master’s studies, he received several scholarships and research grants, and made the Dean’s List. Lior has taught tutorial courses at the Steve Tisch School and has lectured at international conferences on his research into the connections among cinema, phenomenological and post-structuralist philosophy, time, and ethics. His thesis explores the labyrinthine time structures of David Lynch’s late-period cinema, their perceptual and textual complexities, and their ethical possibilities. Lior has published essays on Twin Peaks in New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film (June 2025) and the Hebrew-language journals Pas-Yetzirah (June 2021) and Fireflies Vol. 4 (January 2025), for which he also served as producer. In his Ph.D. research, Lior aims to examine performances of spectrality affects in digital cinema and broader media, and to examine the kinds of documentation, testimonies, and reactions to October 7th, as manifestations of trauma to the lived-experiences of the events.
Research and Creative Interests
cinematic time, ethics, archeology of media, digital cinema, avant-garde, intertextuality, American cinema, Israeli cinema, European cinema
Selected Work and Awards
Perelsztejn, Lior. “The Crystalline Indexical Return of ‘Twin Peaks’.” New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, Issue: ‘New Perspectives in Film and Realism, Part 2’, Vol. 23, Intellect, June 2025 (pub. October 2025). pp. 79–96.
“The Crystalline Return to ‘Twin Peaks’.” Presented at The 20th Critical Studies in Television Conference in Manchester, UK, July 2025.
“The Disguise of Twin Peaks.” Presented at The 15th Deleuze and Guattari Studies Conference and Camp, Belgrade, Serbia, July 2023.
The David and Yolanda Katz Faculty of The Arts Research Grant: Received the Tel Aviv University Faculty of the Arts Research Grant in support of faculty members’ publications. April 2025.
Dean’s List (TAU): Cinema Studies Master’s Degree, The Steve Tisch Film and Television School at Tel Aviv University, 2021-2022, 2022–2023 academic years, awarded to students with the highest department averages. May 2023.
Education
PhD, Cinema and Media Studies, UCLA (in progress)
MA, Cinema Studies, Tel Aviv University
BA, Cinema Studies, Tel Aviv University