Escape from Lockdown - Rochester Independent College’s Mission to Mars
Students find galactic way of beating Covid boredom with documentary
As the UK begins to tentatively emerge from lockdown, many of us are taking a moment to reflect on the trials and achievements of past, difficult months. For students at Rochester Independent College however, the lockdown experience has been a little more ‘out of this world’ than just Netflix marathons, zoom quizzes and baking banana bread.
Mission to Mars has been a participatory arts project dreamed up between Two Gents Productions in London and Rochester Independent College. The idea was to launch a project that allowed young people to imaginatively escape from lockdown and creatively engage with the concerns facing them in the here and now - whether that be personal issues of isolation, anxiety and missing contact with loved ones, or social issues such as sustainability, equality and development. The project aimed to create a documentary style film exploring both the science and humanity behind a central question: What motivates our desire to colonise Mars?
Working mainly through online interactive sessions, Sixth Form students, staff and directors met regularly to discuss ideas, develop content and feedback on each others creative work.
The project brought together a richly diverse group of contributors not only from over 10 different nationalities, but also geographically located in at least four countries, with participants joining virtually from lockdown situations in Thailand, China, The Middle East and the UK.
The group comprised science students, future medics, theatre directors and actors, visual artists, film producers, anthropologists, animators and educators. “It's taught me that it's very important to listen carefully to what others have to say and to work within a community where all ideas can be valid.”, said one participant. This range of perspectives not only allowed the group to explore the possibility of a ‘Mission to Mars’ from a myriad of angles, but also provided an exciting opportunity for them to to step outside their comfort zones - at a time when many of us were limited even in stepping outside of front doors.
Director Arne Pohleier of Two Gents Productions described the weekly zoom meetings as a “heaven-sent creative outlet to escape from lockdown and an opportunity to re-evaluate this life on Earth”.
“It was great to see how all participants were able to strengthen their skills and abilities across disciplines - those who may have defined themselves predominantly as ‘artistic’ discovered they could equally well apply themselves to ’scientific’ endeavours and vice versa”.
Two Gents Theatre Co.
Without a script to follow, the creative ‘team’ were responsible for shaping the direction of the project and deciding what kind of content to create to explore the Mission to Mars theme. This resulted in a rich eclectic mix of material from filming scenes in nature, carrying out real and dramatic interviews, writing and creating dramatic scenes and monologues, researching, creating and delivering science-based presentations on topics such as deep space radiation, water on Mars, space horticulture and time difference, poetry, drawings, paintings and collected archive footage.
The film (still in production ) conveys the central message ‘We are going to Mars - but this is the cost’. Crystallising this central theme was not easy and took weeks of discussion, research and creative exploration. Participants were torn between the excitement and adventure of journeying into deep space and colonising a new world on one hand and the pull and yearning for the familiar joys of Earth on the other - home, family, nature, pets and human connection.
The film itself presents a constellation of images, moments, thoughts and ideas carefully curated from students’ lockdown lives in order to reflect these tensions and deeply explore both the facts and emotions involved. Curated footage of Elon Musk is set against short films of cyclists, people and birds along the Medway at dusk and two dogs wrestling on a sofa in China.
An in-depth explanation of the dangers of deep space radiation is juxtaposed with personal monologues of would-be astronauts describing objects that remind them of home. Vox-pops style interviews are contrasted with artwork depicting a post-apocalyptic aftermath of Martian colonisation, alongside images reflecting the glory of the natural world on Earth. Even the soundtrack is playfully varied, moving from Euro-pop to classical to the inevitable ‘Life on Mars’ by David Bowie.
Recent research from YMCA has revealed that more than 70% of young people in the UK have struggled with loneliness and stress during lockdown. During this period of uncertainty the Mission to Mars project wanted to create a space for meaningful interaction, personal growth, fostering self-esteem and mutual support. Reflecting on what he has learned on the project, one participant, an aspiring medic from Malaysia said “I have been able to experience how creatives think and learned to see other pathways of thought to problem resolution.” Another participant was proud because the project had shown her that “I can lead a group to create something that we are all proud of and that incorporates everyone's ideas into the film.”
Although the majority of the project took place online due to the national lockdown rules, the participants were finally able to come together in person for a full day workshop once restrictions eased and schools were able to reopen (socially distanced and covid secure of course). It was wonderful for the group to be able to meet each other in the real world, after so many weeks of intensive, creative collaboration online. For some, newly arrived international students, it was the first time they had ever met the rest of the group. For others, who had been shielding, it was one of the first opportunities for social interaction outside of their home in months. One student felt that this final day was definitely the most memorable highlight for her, especially because it was the first time the group were able to sit down and watch the first complete ‘rough cut’ of the film they had been working so hard on. After seeing the film for the first time, one student summed up the group’s reaction with the comment “a pretty amazing job”.
The final documentary film is still in the process of editing and post-production - processes which are by this stage, entirely student led. The hope is that the final edit of the 20 minute film will be completed by early summer. The Mission to Mars team have a number of hopes for the finished product. It aspires to be a creative testament to their experiences of lockdown and their creative mission to Mars, but one which they hope will also resonate with others, as they too reflect on the challenges, possibilities and questions that the pandemic has raised about what it means to be human. The team are also considering other potential outlets for their film- for example as an educational resource or a possible entry to upcoming film festivals. However the true value and impact of the project can already be seen in the group themselves - in their recognition of their own resilience and their confidence in their ability to collaborate and create powerful creative and scientific content through a process of exploration and discovery.
For more information about this project visit : https://rochester-college.org/