John Smith Movies

Gaza, December 2023. A confrontation with a disturbing photograph on social media triggers questions about what it means to be an onlooker.

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

An improvisation recorded over the course of one day, starting at dawn and finishing after dusk. The film was edited in camera and shot from one...

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

Recorded from a smartphone screen, its translation app running on the wrong settings and struggling to interpret North London street signs in French...

Back stroke butterfly, front crawl and bras, we are awash in an ocean of bubbles. Meanwhile Captain Ahab sets sail on his magic carpet in search of...

Many of my films involve humour, but unlike the earlier work Shepherd’s Delight attempts to confront the problem of humour head-on, referring...

A disorientating experience while attempting to watch the TV news in an Irish hotel room triggers a spontaneous response to the bombing of...

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

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...

The perception of an Anglo-American hotel room is coloured by new revelations about ‘The War on Terror’ and ‘The Special...

Filmed in and around Margate on the English coast, Horizon (Five Pounds a Belgian) consists of a series of identically composed images of views out...

A man finds himself haunted by a mysterious black tower in London that appears to follow him wherever he goes.

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

THE CAMERA, THE ACTOR was commissioned by musician Charles Hayward to accompany the song of the same name on his album entitled (Begin Anywhere).

While the Iraq war continues, a day’s sightseeing and the features of a German hotel provoke a stream of thoughts about events large and small.

Moving from one hotel in Bethlehem to another in East Jerusalem, the filmmaker encounters a series of problems involving a ceiling, a video camera...

7P is constructed around the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas and incorporates similar picture and sound fragments recorded over the Christmas...

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