Online retrospective of John Smith

"In a twelve-minute take of an ordinary busy street, a voice-over seems to direct the random events that unfold there. It quickly becomes evident that the scene is not responding to the voice, but vice-versa. Through staggering image and sound track, the voice seems to gain powerful authority over the scene, predicting events that the images thus confirm. How much is this simple trick like viewing the evening news? Much like Chris Marker’s best work, Smith’s film exposes the constructedness of the real in a way that is fundamentally destabilizing." Collier White, review of exhibition at Artists Space, New York 2007 (...)

"This four minute film explores our response to stereotypes - aural, visual and ideological. Smith signals these stereotypes to the viewer through a chiefly associational system, which deftly manipulates the path of our expectations. The structure is stunningly simple and deceptively subtle. We are taken on a journey from one concrete stereotype to its diametric opposite, as images transform and juxtapose to, ultimately, invert our interpretation of what we see and hear." Gary Davis. (...)

"In The Black Tower we enter the world of a man haunted by a tower which, he believes, is following him around London. While the character of the central protagonist is indicated only by a narrative voice-over which takes us from unease to breakdown to mysterious death. … Smith’s assurance and skill as a filmmaker undercuts the notion of the avant-garde as dry, unprofessional and dull and in The Black Tower we have an example of a film which plays with the emotions as well as the language of film." Nik Houghton, Independent Media (...)

"Blight was made in collaboration with the composer Jocelyn Pook. It revolves around the building of the M11 Link Road in East London, which provoked a long and bitter campaign by local residents to protect their homes from demolition. The images in the film record some of the changes which occurred in the area over a two-year period, from the demolition of houses through to the start of motorway building work. The soundtrack incorporates natural sounds associated with these events together with speech fragments taken from recorded conversations with local people.
Although it is entirely constructed from records of real events, Blight is not a straightforward documentary. The film exploits the ambiguities of its material to produce new meanings and metaphors, frequently fictionalizing reality through framing and editing strategies."
A.L. Rees, A History of Experimental Film and Video, 1999 (...)

"A particularly beautiful lily seems to grow before our eyes, gradually changing shape; what sounds like breathing on the sound track gives it an almost human presence…"
Fred Camper, Chicago Reader, 2001 (...)

An exploration of the ambiguities of documentary photographs which develops ideas triggered by a German pun. (...)

Made over six years in the hotels of six different countries, Hotel Diaries charts the “War on Terror” era of Bush and Blair through a series of video recordings that relate personal experiences to the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. In these works, which play upon chance and coincidence, the hotel room is employed as a “found” film set, where the architecture, furnishing and decoration become the means by which the filmmaker’s small adventures are linked to major world events. (...)

Made over six years in the hotels of six different countries, Hotel Diaries charts the “War on Terror” era of Bush and Blair through a series of video recordings that relate personal experiences to the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. In these works, which play upon chance and coincidence, the hotel room is employed as a “found” film set, where the architecture, furnishing and decoration become the means by which the filmmaker’s small adventures are linked to major world events. (...)

Made over six years in the hotels of six different countries, Hotel Diaries charts the “War on Terror” era of Bush and Blair through a series of video recordings that relate personal experiences to the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. In these works, which play upon chance and coincidence, the hotel room is employed as a “found” film set, where the architecture, furnishing and decoration become the means by which the filmmaker’s small adventures are linked to major world events. (...)

A view across the border in the divided city of Nicosia, from the rooftops of the Greek Cypriot south to the mountains of the Turkish Republic in the north. Moving between macro and micro perspectives, Flag Mountain sets dramatic spectacle against everyday life as the inhabitants of both sides of the city go about their daily business. (...)