#  Mari Kishi 

Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

 

 

 



   ![Mari Kishi](/sites/g/files/omnuum996/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2026-06/Kishi%20headshot.jpg?itok=hNGYi9Tq) 

 



 





 

**TRIFEST International Youth Film Festival | Hudson, NY**

**Building Community Through Youth Cinema and Public Programming**

**Mari Kishi** is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. Mari’s research explores contemporary Japanese media culture, examining how gender, technology, and media infrastructures shape one another. Their dissertation investigates how the circulation of mobile media and communication technologies in 1990s Japan produced the schoolgirl as a sexualized consumer.

Beyond their dissertation research, Mari has been deeply invested in amateur and independent media cultures, with a particular interest in the institutions that sustain creative communities outside commercial systems of production and evaluation. Their archival work at Harvard has included building digital collections of Japanese student and amateur films from the 1970s through the 1990s, preserving historically marginalized yet significant works that have often remained inaccessible to scholars and the general public.

Mari's engagement with film festivals began in 2009 as a translator for the Kansai Queer Film Festival, where subtitling and programming introduced them to film festivals as vital spaces for cultural encounter and public dialogue. Since then, they have expanded their professional impact by serving as a programmer, juror, and organizer at various film festivals across Japan, France, and the United States.

This summer, Mari serves as Programming Director of the TRIFEST International Youth Film Festival, an international festival dedicated to filmmakers under the age of twenty-five. In this role, they oversee the festival's curatorial process while developing filmmaker conversations, mentorship initiatives, workshops, and partnerships with regional schools and arts organizations. Drawing on their experience with amateur media and community-based film culture, Mari is committed to creating opportunities and spaces for emerging filmmakers to connect with one another and with diverse audiences across the Hudson Valley.



 

 

 





 

 

- ## Fellowship Recipients
    
     [2026 Fellows](/fellowship-recipients/2026-fellows)
- ## Fellowships
    
     [Fellowships in Arts and Culture](/fellowship/arts)