. . I’ll be presenting a retrospective of my films at the V-F-X Festival in Ljubljana on Thursday and Friday this week (see link in bio for details). I’m disappointed by the rainy weather forecast but very happy that the Slovenian state broadcaster RTV will be boycotting Eurovision. “We will not be broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest,” RTV director, Ksenija Horvat, told the Associated Press. “We will be airing the film series ‘Voices of Palestine’, featuring Palestinian documentaries and feature films.”
. . Open City Documentary Festival will be screening my first two 16mm films, ‘Triangles’ (1972) and ‘Someone Moving’ (1973), in the ‘Sensual Laboratories’ programme at the ICA, London, at 8.30 pm Thursday 16 April. The programme will be presented by writer/curator Sophia-Satchell-Baeza and followed by a discussion with myself and Jarvis Cocker. See link in bio for details.
. . This is the trailer I’ve made for this year’s Open City Documentary Festival in London, which runs from April 14-19. The festival will also be showing my first two 16mm films, ‘Triangles’ (1972) and ‘Someone Moving’ (1973), in the ‘Sensual Laboratories’ programme at the ICA, curated and presented by Sophia-Satchell-Baeza and followed by a discussion with myself and Jarvis Cocker. See link in bio for details.
I really enjoyed screening my films at the Cinema Museum in Kennington on Saturday night. A great place and a great audience, which included many new faces and a couple of old friends I hadn’t seen for more than 50 years. The event was a very moving experience for me and the strong feeling of warmth and communality was a fitting end to an uplifting day, when half a million of us marched against the far right. Many thanks to Andy Holden for his excellent questions and old schoolfriend Lee Pressman for inviting me. Last two photos by ace photographer Eva Vermandel.
. . I’m happy to be presenting a varied selection of my films in a benefit screening for the Cinema Museum in Kennington on Saturday 28 March. The programme will include ‘Being John Smith’ (2024), ‘Twice’ (2020), ‘Steve Hates Fish’ (2015), ‘Dad’s Stick’ (2012), ‘Gargantuan (1992), ‘The Black Tower’ (1985-87), ‘Om’ (1986) and ‘The Girl Chewing Gum’ (1976). I’ll introduce the screening, after which I’ll be in conversation with the brilliant artist and musician Andy Holden. See link in bio for details and booking.
. . As someone who grew up in Walthamstow and lived in the borough on and off for more than 40 years, I’ll be presenting a programme of related films for the Waltham Forest Cinema Project at the wonderful Good Shepherd Studios.
The programme will include ‘The Black Tower’ (featuring the Victorian water tower that used to stand in the grounds of Langthorne Hospital), ‘Blight’ (made when I lived in short-life artists’ housing in Colville Road prior to the construction of the M11 Link Road) and ‘The Waste Land’ (filmed in the gents toilet in the Northcote pub in Grove Green Road). I will also be presenting ‘Dad’s Stick’ and my recent film ‘Being John Smith’, followed by a Q&A. See link in bio to book tickets.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first screening of John Smith’s seminal film 'The Girl Chewing Gum' at the London Filmmakers’ Co-op 🎉
10 March 1976
‘The Girl Chewing Gum' was made during a rich period of avant-garde practice in which many filmmakers sought to dismantle the illusionist transparency of cinema. Most took up a focus on filmic materiality, refusing the possibility of a ‘window on the world’ in favour of a concern with the cinematic apparatus. Smith proceeded somewhat differently: his interest lay above all in interrogating the conventions that structured cinematic signification. 'The Girl Chewing Gum' offers a playful yet trenchant exploration of the role that language – and particularly voiceover – plays in the production of meaning and asserts the absolute impossibility of immediacy and neutrality. But despite its anti-illusionist criticality, the film remains deeply engaged with narrative and humour, two terms not often associated with British avant-garde cinema.’
- Erika Balsom, 'The Girl Chewing Gum 1976 by John Smith', Tate Research, 2015
The film will be screened @the_cinema_museum on 28 March - link in bio for tickets
@theotherjohnsmith
. . In the run up to The Girl Chewing Gum’s 50th anniversary events at Close-Up Cinema on March 10th, the film is currently showing constantly (though best viewed after dark) in the window of the building that it features, at the junction of Kingsland Road and Stamford Road, Dalston E8. After Steele’s the glaziers closed down it became a motorcycle shop for many years, but the building is currently vacant and awaiting development. Thanks to Dave, the new owner, for letting us in.
. . The first ever screening of ‘The Girl Chewing Gum’ took place at the London Filmmakers’ Co-op on the 10th of March 1976. In celebration of the film’s 50th birthday it will be presented at the Close-Up Cinema in Shoreditch on the exact same date, together with ‘The Man Phoning Mum’ (2011), ‘Being John Smith’ (2024) and the first ever screening of my latest video ‘Two Pids’ (2026).
The programme will screen twice, at 6.00pm and 8.00pm. I will be in conversation with Stanley Schtinter after the first screening and Erika Balsom after the second. See link in bio for details.
