Under the Influence

Around the Block, Next Wave, Brunswick, 2025

Under the Influence continues Jack Hodges' exploration of how beliefs are shaped, shifting here from a coastal/urban context into a rural setting, framed by silos, hay bales, colourbond, barbed wire, and Akubra hats.

Filmed largely off the cuff, the work centres on encounters with strangers who have only just met Gary the Dolphin along his journey from Nambucca Heads, NSW to McLaren Vale, SA through rural NSW/VIC. Many participants were contacted through Facebook community noticeboards, alongside spontaneous vox-pop encounters. These conversations unfold as a kind of informal confessional: a space where people speak openly, often revealing personal reflections, contradictions, and deeply held views. The camera operates less as an interrogator and more as a silent witness: present, attentive, but non-judgemental.

Across these interactions, influence emerges not as something imposed, but as something embedded and determined by language, upbringing, environment, and the subtle desire to align or belong. Participants navigate questions in real time, sometimes reconsidering their positions, other times reinforcing them, exposing the fluid nature of belief

Under the Influence is underpinned by a strong sense of trust. Contributors have been generous and candid, allowing for moments of vulnerability and attentiveness. Rather than offering fixed conclusions, the video invites viewers into a shared space considering how beliefs are formed and held, in relation to Gary's conceptualisation of truth.