First Breath on Mars

“First Breath on Mars” is an experimental 16mm film that investigates colonial ideologies through aerodynamic, mechanical, and ballistic flight. Inside the Earth’s atmosphere, the film chronicles the establishment of ornithology in the United States. Outside the Earth’s atmosphere, the film probes into dreams of and developments in space exploration. In the basement of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, ornithologist Dr. Robert Driver examines the Thick-billed Longspur (formerly known as McCown’s Longspur), Scott’s Oriole, Townsend’s Warbler, and Townsend’s Solitaire bird specimens. Delving into the history of ornithology in North America, Dr. Driver explains how these birds were named, who they were named after –Confederate General John P. McCown, General Winfield Scott, and John Kirk Townsend – and the racist violence these white men enacted against Black and Indigenous people. Dr. Driver also describes working with the American Ornithological Society (AOS) to change the name of the Thick-billed Longspur and why he is advocating for the AOS to follow through with their commitment to change all honorific bird names. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket liftoff, from Cape Canaveral in Florida, ignites the second half of “First Breath on Mars.” Footage of Crew-10 making their way to the International Space Station is crosscut with found footage of Apollo 11 approaching the moon, as well as original footage of the Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado and the 2024 total solar eclipse viewed from northern Vermont. Narration, adapted from calculations made in 1949 by rocket physicist Wernher von Braun – a NASA aerospace engineer who had previously been a member of the Nazi party in Germany – describes the first crewed trip to Mars.

Year

2025

Director

Malic Amalya

Duration

19 min

Country

United States

Language

English