The short film Influence of Mars by Susannah Gent employs filmmaking to reveal hidden instinctual behaviour. The filmmaker asks her ten year old son, about his arsenal of weapons, many of which are intended for other use; the handle of a back brush, juggling batons, and a plastic cricket stump. Despite his enthusiasm for maiming and killing he has no idea why we have wars.
The film questions innate psychological tendencies alongside socially manufactured human behaviour. These issues are explored further through academic texts and conference contributions that set the film in the context of an interdisciplinary investigation combining neuropsychoanalysis and creative practice research.
Influence of Mars was originally produced as part of the Solar: Walking at the Speed of Light project with the Sheffield Hallam University Media Arts Walking Research group.
The walking arts app that was launched as part of the Catalyst Festival 2017, gained coverage by the regional BBC Calendar News program and the film has been part of a group show at the Sheffield Institute of Arts gallery in March 2017.
Influence of Mars was screened at screened 33. Internationales KurzFilmFestival Hamburg, 2017, as part of the Flotter- Dreier-Wettewerb program. The film was voted 8th best film by the audience out of a program of 30 short films and was selected out of over 400 submissions. In 2018 Influence of Mars was screened in the Children and youth section of the 64. Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen.
Dissemination
Influence of Mars has gained unprecedented dissemination for a small, zero-budget film including a television and online broadcast, international film festival distribution, youth education programmes, art exhibition, and in its original format as an app.
Influence of Mars was broadcast on Arte, the French / German cultural television channel in 2020. This followed several screenings across Germany including the 33. Internationales KurzFilmFestival Hamburg, 2017, at which it was voted eighth out of thirty in its category by the audience. In 2018 it was screened at the British Council supported 64. Internationales Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen in the Children and Youth Section and following this screening was requested for Drehmomente, a film competition ceremony held in Dortmund as part of a youth festival. More recently the film rights have been acquired for an educational programme, Forum des Images, at cinemas in Paris for elementary schools.
The 35th Kassel Documentary Film and Video, Germany, 2018, selected Influence of Mars from over 3,000 submissions. In a different context, the film was selected to screen at the 9th International Historical and Military Film Festival in Warsaw, 2018. Influence of Mars was also screened at the Chapel-Allerton Film Festival, Seven Artspace in 2018 in a programme of regional work. The film was originally made for ‘Solar: Walking at the Speed of Light’, a collaborative art project and app that gained coverage by the regional BBC Calendar News programme, and was shown as part of a group show at the Sheffield Institute of Arts, ‘Solar’ exhibition in 2017.
From its origin as part of the ‘Solar’ walking app, the film has been disseminated in a wider context as part of an on-going body of work relating to walking arts research. The Walking Arts Research Group, a group of academic staff at Sheffield Hallam University, and the creators of the ‘Solar’ walking app project, develop work individually and collaboratively. Influence of Mars has featured in conference contributions alongside other films in discussion of walking arts practices and creative practice research.
