John Smith Movies

John Smith stands in front of a mirror, singing “Happy Birthday” in a minor key, like a funeral dirge, twice, as he washes his hands.

‘Covid Messages’ is a video in six parts, based around broadcasts of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s COVID-19 press conferences. The...

An exploration of the ambiguities of documentary photographs which develops ideas triggered by a German pun. Worst Case Scenario starts out as a...

Artist John Smith tells stories about tower block life, editing in bold, unconventional fashion, cutting into the material and highlighting the...

On December 1st 1990, watched by the world’s media, construction worker Graham Fagg of Dover climbed through a hole in a chalk wall 40 metres...

Lost Sound documents fragments of discarded audio tape found on the streets of a small area of East London, combining the sound retrieved from each...

The filmmaker returns to the city where he made the first video in the series [Frozen War] and looks back at the events of the past six years.

As the camera looks out through a barred window and the clock strikes four in a Swiss city, the death of Yasser Arafat provides the starting point...

'Shine So Hard' is a rare Echo and the Bunnymen promotional concert film, taking place during their 1981 'Camo Tour'.

A portrait of the artist as a not so young man. The film-maker attempts to enter the digital age by making a new video version of his 1978 film 7P.

Dad’s Stick features three well-used objects that were shown to the artist by his father shortly before he died. Two of these were so steeped...

Abstract animation punctuated by found footage, cut to the song White Light / White Heat by The Velvet Underground.

The discovery of a VHS tape of the artist's films on eBay triggers obsessive speculation about the seller's identity.

Hamas have just won the Palestinian elections and a chocolate bar in a Rotterdam hotel room eventually reminds the filmmaker that there are more...

Reflecting on past political problems and the state of the world as it was provides no tools or means for envisioning the future.

Waiting by the sea with his camera ready for action, the artist complains about the weather and attempts to describe his intentions and working...

A reworking of material from the 16mm film ‘Blue Bathroom’, a distillation of ideas concerning the tension between representation and...

Blue Bathroom is a distillation of ideas concerning the tension between representation and materiality. It begins with an apparently straightforward...

“If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” Matthew 5:38-40

Filmmaker John Smith revisits the original locations of his seminal experimental film The Girl Chewing Gum (1976) after 35 years, using...