Susannah Gent
BIOGRAPHY
Susannah Gent is a filmmaker, artist and senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University where she teaches undergraduate and post-graduate film production. Her films that have gained awards at international festivals over the past twenty years explore experimental approaches to representing subjectivity. Her Ph.D., for which she obtained a full-pass in 2019, combines interdisciplinary research including philosophy, psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and filmmaking to explore the uncanny and hauntology. Rather than representing reality, Susannah’s current work seeks approaches to making films that represent ideas. Her work in development investigates methods of researching physical space, psychical space and cinematic space.
FILMOGRAPHY
2021 The Cellar 12 mins HDV
An adaptation of the short story by Manchester based author Nicholas Royle. Performed by Stuart Wyatt, this surreal film follows a man's emotional disintegration following a break-up. Produced in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic lock-down with one actor and one crew member.
2020 Psychotel 60 mins HDV
An essay film that uses the metaphor of the hotel to explore the psyche. The film investigates the uncanny as a state of being relating to the split nature of the self by combining fictional stories, dreams, philosophical commentary, and complex voice-over that complicates the authorial voice. Premiered at the 66th International Short Film Festival of Oberhausen in 2020 in the Profile: Susannah Gent programme.
2019 Scanner 6 mins HDV
An experimental documentary made as a result of an fMRI survey that used image sets to investigate the neurological underpinnings of the uncanny.
2017 Influence of Mars 4 mins HDV
Originally produced for the SOLAR: Walking at the Speed of Light, art research project with the Sheffield Hallam University Walking Research group, premiered on Calendar news January 2017, with exhibition at the Sheffield institute of Arts gallery March 2017. Premiered as a single film at the International Hamburg Short Film Festival in May 2017.
2016 Unhomely Street 20 mins HDV
Experimental essay film exploring hauntology and mental illness. World premiere at 63rd International Short Film Festival of Oberhausen 2017. Presented in a gallery setting as part of the 'Against the Slow Dissolution of the Future' conference, Goldsmiths College, London, 2017.
2015 Snake Shifter and the Bone Chair 11 mins HDV
Experimental fairy tale performed by Zinnia and Harvey Gent-Salmon
2013 Taxidermy for Beginners live performance
Part of the ‘Goat Boy and other Journeys work. As a live performance. at the Sheffield Poetry festival 2011 and ‘Off the Shelf’ Literary festival 2011. Collaboration with poet Fay Musselwhite.
2013 Goat Boy 4 mins HDV
Part of the ‘Goat Boy and other Journeys work. As a live performance. at the Sheffield Poetry festival 2011 and ‘Off the Shelf’ Literary festival 2011. Collaboration with poet Fay Musselwhite.
2013 Pregnant Pussy Mash Up 2 mins HDV
Screened at Salón Internacional de La Luz, Spain in May 2013
2010 Taxidermy Tea Party 4 mins HDV
Part of the ‘Goat Boy and other Journeys work. As a live
performance. at the Sheffield Poetry festival 2011 and ‘Off the Shelf’ Literary festival 2011. Collaboration with poet Fay Musselwhite.
2008 The Reynard Diary 9 mins HDV
Part of the ‘Taxidermy works’. Exhibited at Bank Street Arts 2010.
2005 The Dance Project 5 mins mini DV
Dance for Camera Pilot supported by South East Dance.
2004 Jelly Dolly 94 mins Digi Beta
Independently produced feature film. Best New British Feature Award, British Council Showcase of British & Irish Cinema, Berlin 2004. Distributed on DVD by supersonic Films, Blackdog Distribution, and Cornerstone Media International.
2001 Planet Arse 24 mins DV
DV drama for Channel Four through Ideal World. Written by Dave Ainley.
1999 Bedhead 24 mins Digi Beta & 16mm
Drama commissioned by Channel Four ‘Acts of Passion’ series. Transmitted September 1999. Written by Caspar Berry.
1998 Bun 5 mins 16mm
In Collaboration with Performance Artist Lisa Watts. Funded by A4E The National Lottery. Shortlisted for Best Film Award at the Valencia Film Festival 1998.
Special Commendation Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival 1999.
1996 Blue Movie 3.5 mins 16mm
Funded by Yorkshire & Humberside Arts. Premiered at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival 1997. Distributed by Kurzfilmagenteur and toured with 'A Wall is a Screen' 1998.
1995 Melvyn’s Pencils 10 mins 16mm
Produced for the 10 x 10 series, BBC Bristol. Silver Hugo Award, Chicago International Film Festival 1996.
1994 Blowfly 10 mins Super 8mm
PG Dip graduation film, Northern Media School.
1994 The Bather 10 mins Super 16mm
Produced for the British Film Institute Production Projects scheme. Part funded by the Northern Media School and Yorkshire & Humberside Arts.
1994 Black Bag 10 mins Super 16mm
Produced with the assistance of a Fuji Film Scholarship. Best Short Film Award, Festival Internatinal De Cine Realizado Por Mujeres 1995, Silver Plaque Award, Chicago Intercom Festival, 1995, Zonal Award for Best Use of Sound, Fuji Film Scholarship, 1994.
1993 Thread 7 mins 16mm
Produced with the assistance of a Fuji Film Scholarship. Silver Plaque Award, Chicago International Film Festival, 1994, Best Short Film Award, Twentieth Century Vox Festival, 1993.
BIOGRAPHY
Susannah Gent is a filmmaker, artist and senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University where she teaches undergraduate and post-graduate film production. Her films that have gained awards at international festivals over the past twenty years explore experimental approaches to representing subjectivity. Her Ph.D., for which she obtained a full-pass in 2019, combines interdisciplinary research including philosophy, psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and filmmaking to explore the uncanny and hauntology. Rather than representing reality, Susannah’s current work seeks approaches to making films that represent ideas. Her work in development investigates methods of researching physical space, psychical space and cinematic space.
FILMOGRAPHY
2021 The Cellar 12 mins HDV
An adaptation of the short story by Manchester based author Nicholas Royle. Performed by Stuart Wyatt, this surreal film follows a man's emotional disintegration following a break-up. Produced in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic lock-down with one actor and one crew member.
2020 Psychotel 60 mins HDV
An essay film that uses the metaphor of the hotel to explore the psyche. The film investigates the uncanny as a state of being relating to the split nature of the self by combining fictional stories, dreams, philosophical commentary, and complex voice-over that complicates the authorial voice. Premiered at the 66th International Short Film Festival of Oberhausen in 2020 in the Profile: Susannah Gent programme.
2019 Scanner 6 mins HDV
An experimental documentary made as a result of an fMRI survey that used image sets to investigate the neurological underpinnings of the uncanny.
2017 Influence of Mars 4 mins HDV
Originally produced for the SOLAR: Walking at the Speed of Light, art research project with the Sheffield Hallam University Walking Research group, premiered on Calendar news January 2017, with exhibition at the Sheffield institute of Arts gallery March 2017. Premiered as a single film at the International Hamburg Short Film Festival in May 2017.
2016 Unhomely Street 20 mins HDV
Experimental essay film exploring hauntology and mental illness. World premiere at 63rd International Short Film Festival of Oberhausen 2017. Presented in a gallery setting as part of the 'Against the Slow Dissolution of the Future' conference, Goldsmiths College, London, 2017.
2015 Snake Shifter and the Bone Chair 11 mins HDV
Experimental fairy tale performed by Zinnia and Harvey Gent-Salmon
2013 Taxidermy for Beginners live performance
Part of the ‘Goat Boy and other Journeys work. As a live performance. at the Sheffield Poetry festival 2011 and ‘Off the Shelf’ Literary festival 2011. Collaboration with poet Fay Musselwhite.
2013 Goat Boy 4 mins HDV
Part of the ‘Goat Boy and other Journeys work. As a live performance. at the Sheffield Poetry festival 2011 and ‘Off the Shelf’ Literary festival 2011. Collaboration with poet Fay Musselwhite.
2013 Pregnant Pussy Mash Up 2 mins HDV
Screened at Salón Internacional de La Luz, Spain in May 2013
2010 Taxidermy Tea Party 4 mins HDV
Part of the ‘Goat Boy and other Journeys work. As a live
performance. at the Sheffield Poetry festival 2011 and ‘Off the Shelf’ Literary festival 2011. Collaboration with poet Fay Musselwhite.
2008 The Reynard Diary 9 mins HDV
Part of the ‘Taxidermy works’. Exhibited at Bank Street Arts 2010.
2005 The Dance Project 5 mins mini DV
Dance for Camera Pilot supported by South East Dance.
2004 Jelly Dolly 94 mins Digi Beta
Independently produced feature film. Best New British Feature Award, British Council Showcase of British & Irish Cinema, Berlin 2004. Distributed on DVD by supersonic Films, Blackdog Distribution, and Cornerstone Media International.
2001 Planet Arse 24 mins DV
DV drama for Channel Four through Ideal World. Written by Dave Ainley.
1999 Bedhead 24 mins Digi Beta & 16mm
Drama commissioned by Channel Four ‘Acts of Passion’ series. Transmitted September 1999. Written by Caspar Berry.
1998 Bun 5 mins 16mm
In Collaboration with Performance Artist Lisa Watts. Funded by A4E The National Lottery. Shortlisted for Best Film Award at the Valencia Film Festival 1998.
Special Commendation Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival 1999.
1996 Blue Movie 3.5 mins 16mm
Funded by Yorkshire & Humberside Arts. Premiered at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival 1997. Distributed by Kurzfilmagenteur and toured with 'A Wall is a Screen' 1998.
1995 Melvyn’s Pencils 10 mins 16mm
Produced for the 10 x 10 series, BBC Bristol. Silver Hugo Award, Chicago International Film Festival 1996.
1994 Blowfly 10 mins Super 8mm
PG Dip graduation film, Northern Media School.
1994 The Bather 10 mins Super 16mm
Produced for the British Film Institute Production Projects scheme. Part funded by the Northern Media School and Yorkshire & Humberside Arts.
1994 Black Bag 10 mins Super 16mm
Produced with the assistance of a Fuji Film Scholarship. Best Short Film Award, Festival Internatinal De Cine Realizado Por Mujeres 1995, Silver Plaque Award, Chicago Intercom Festival, 1995, Zonal Award for Best Use of Sound, Fuji Film Scholarship, 1994.
1993 Thread 7 mins 16mm
Produced with the assistance of a Fuji Film Scholarship. Silver Plaque Award, Chicago International Film Festival, 1994, Best Short Film Award, Twentieth Century Vox Festival, 1993.
Book sections
GENT, Susannah (2019). The Unconscious and the City: A Neuropsychoanalytic Exploration of Cinematic Space. In: KAVAKOGLU, Aysegul Akcay, HACIOMEROGLU, Turkan and LANDRUM, Lisa, (eds.) Narrating the City. Intellect Books.
Journal articles
GENT, Susannah (2017). Exorcising Unhomely Street: filmic intuition and the representation of post-concussive syndrome. Journal for Artistic Research, 14.
Conference contributions
GENT, Susannah (2018). Unhomely Street: The unconscious and the city. In: Moving Images - Static Spaces: Architecture, Art, Media, Film, Digital Art and Design, Altinbas University, Istanbul, 12th - 13th April 2018
GENT, Susannah (2016). The neuroscientific uncanny: an investigation into the limits of scientific method. In: Wild or Domesticated: Uncanny in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives to Mind, Interdisciplinary conference, House of Science and Letters, Helsinki, Finland, 20 - 22nd September 2016
GENT, Susannah (2016). The wandering mind: a filmic investigation of the uncanny and the walking body. In: Wild or Domesticated: Uncanny in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives to Mind, House of Science and Letters, University of Turku, Helsinki, Finland, 20 - 22nd Septermber 2016
GENT, Susannah (2016). The voice of anxiety : affect through tone in filmic narration and voice-over. In: Performance and performability: actualities and futures, Leeds Humanitied Research Institute, University of Leeds, 15 June 2016
GENT, Susannah (2016). Methodological windows : a view of the uncanny through filmmaking, psychoanalysis, and psychology. In: METHOD: Ingenuity, Integration, Insight. 2016, Sheffield Hallam University, 12 May 2016
GENT, Susannah (2015). A 20x20 PK style presentation of art practice and scientific study as research methodology in the C3RI Method conference 2015. In: METHOD: Ingenuity, Integration, Insight. 2015, Sheffield Hallam University, 28 April 2015
WATSON, Annie, LEE, Jeremy, GENT, Susannah, TERNAN, Melvyn, PARKIN, Mark, ROBINSON, Andrew and ROBINSON, Sonya (2015). Poster for Media Arts Walking Research Group. In: Where to? Steps towards the future of walking arts, Falmouth University, 16 April 2015
GENT, Susannah (2015). 7 Walks. In: Where to? Steps towards the future of walking arts, Falmouth University, 16/04/15
GENT, Susannah (2016). The neuroscientific uncanny: an investigation into the limits of scientific method. In: Wild or Domesticated: Uncanny in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives to Mind, Interdisciplinary conference, House of Science and Letters, Helsinki, Finland, 20 - 22nd September 2016
GENT, Susannah (2016). The wandering mind: a filmic investigation of the uncanny and the walking body. In: Wild or Domesticated: Uncanny in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives to Mind, House of Science and Letters, University of Turku, Helsinki, Finland, 20 - 22nd Septermber 2016
GENT, Susannah (2016). The voice of anxiety : affect through tone in filmic narration and voice-over. In: Performance and performability: actualities and futures, Leeds Humanitied Research Institute, University of Leeds, 15 June 2016
GENT, Susannah (2016). Methodological windows : a view of the uncanny through filmmaking, psychoanalysis, and psychology. In: METHOD: Ingenuity, Integration, Insight. 2016, Sheffield Hallam University, 12 May 2016
GENT, Susannah (2015). A 20x20 PK style presentation of art practice and scientific study as research methodology in the C3RI Method conference 2015. In: METHOD: Ingenuity, Integration, Insight. 2015, Sheffield Hallam University, 28 April 2015
WATSON, Annie, LEE, Jeremy, GENT, Susannah, TERNAN, Melvyn, PARKIN, Mark, ROBINSON, Andrew and ROBINSON, Sonya (2015). Poster for Media Arts Walking Research Group. In: Where to? Steps towards the future of walking arts, Falmouth University, 16 April 2015
GENT, Susannah (2015). 7 Walks. In: Where to? Steps towards the future of walking arts, Falmouth University, 16/04/15
