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

Quote:
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, the images, meticulously controlled and articulated, deliver a series of colour coded puzzles, jokes and puns which pull the viewer into a mind-teasing engagement. 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 1987

Quote:
The Black Tower expands the core of Smith’s interests: chiefly, the image as a filmic fact which is constantly questioned and often undermined by language and soundtrack. Like his earlier films, The Black Tower is concerned with description, but this time framed by a story whose undertow of melancholy balances its wit and wry humour, and which is a remarkable fiction in its own right. –A.L. Rees, ‘Art in Cinema’, National Film Theatre, London 1987

Quote:
The hilarious and slightly menacing The Black Tower is one of the most accomplished films to come from the British avant-garde for years. –Michael O’Pray, Independent Media, 1987

	
The.Black.Tower.1987.WEBRIP.576p.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

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Runtime: 	23 min 10 s
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https://nitro.download/view/D2BA0B79A36BE15/The.Black.Tower.1987.WEBRIP.576p.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Italian

The post John Smith – The Black Tower (1987)  first appeared on Cinema of the World.

As random events unfold in an ordinary and busy London street, a commanding voice-over directs the action.

Quote:
“I am writing this with a black ‘Tempo’ fibre-tip pen. A few months ago, I bought fifteen of these pens for sixty pence. Unfortunately, because they are so common, other people pick them up, thinking they are theirs. I bought the pens from a market in Kingsland Road in Hackney, about a hundred yards from where the film was shot. The film draws attention to the cinematic codes and illusions it incorporates by denying their existence, treating representation as absolute reality.”
– John Smith, 1976.

The.Girl.Chewing.Gum.1976.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP.2.0.H.264-GNOMiSSiON.mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	11 min 46 s
Size: 	824 MiB
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https://nitro.download/view/1261046BED2EEFA/The.Girl.Chewing.Gum.1976.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP.2.0.H.264-GNOMiSSiON.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post John Smith – The Girl Chewing Gum (1976) (HD) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
“An autobiographical reflection on his unassuming name leads the filmmaker down a wayward path through family photographs, personal archives, and internet searches. Alternately wry and wistful, peppered with Smith’s characteristically droll commentary, Being John Smith flits between self-deprecation and cris de coeur, offering quietly hilarious observations on Smith’s lower middle class origins and career as an avant-garde cinema luminary, as well as unexpectedly melancholic impressions on age and extinction.” New York Film Festival

About JOHN SMITH
John Smith was born in Walthamstow, London in 1952. He studied at North-East London Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art, after which he became an active member of the London Filmmakers’ Co-op. Inspired in his formative years by conceptual art and structural film, but also fascinated by the immersive power of narrative and the spoken word, he has developed a diverse body of work that subverts the perceived boundaries between documentary, fiction, representation and abstraction. Often rooted in everyday life and personal experience, his meticulously crafted films playfully explore and expose the language of cinema.

Since 1972 Smith has made over sixty film, video and installation works that have been shown in independent cinemas, art galleries, museums and on television around the world. His films have been awarded major prizes at international film festivals in Oberhausen, Leipzig, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Graz, Geneva, Uppsala, Pamplona, Bordeaux, Lucca, Palermo, Split, Cork, Seoul, Ann Arbor and Chicago. He received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists in 2011, and in 2013 he was the winner of Film London’s Jarman Award.

being_john_smith.mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	26 min 52 s
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https://nitro.download/view/93AEC2CDF87E06A/being_john_smith.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English Hardcoded

The post John Smith – Being John Smith (2024) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
A short film in which a director’s voice appears to be directing all the action on a busy London street.

John Smith, 1976, wrote:
I am writing this with a black ‘Tempo’ fibre-tip pen. A few months ago, I bought fifteen of these pens for sixty pence. Unfortunately, because they are so common, other people pick them up, thinking they are theirs. I bought the pens from a market in Kingsland Road in Hackney, about a hundred yards from where the film was shot. The film draws attention to the cinematic codes and illusions it incorporates by denying their existence, treating representation as absolute reality.

A.L. Rees, A Directory of British Film & Video Artists, 1995, wrote:
In The Girl Chewing Gum a commanding voice over appears to direct the action in a busy London street. As the instructions become more absurd and fantasised, we realise that the supposed director (not the shot) is fictional; he only describes – not prescribes – the events that take place before him. Smith embraced the ‘spectre of narrative’ (suppressed by structural film), to play word against picture and chance against order. Sharp and direct, the film anticipates the more elaborate scenarios to come; witty, many-layered, punning, but also seriously and poetically haunted by drama’s ineradicable ghost.

John Smith - 1976 - The Girl Chewing Gum [DVD-PAL].mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	11 min 46 s
Size: 	289 MiB
Video
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https://nitro.download/view/BD65B398FADABCD/John_Smith_-_1976_-_The_Girl_Chewing_Gum__DVD-PAL_.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post John Smith – The Girl Chewing Gum (1976) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
A short film which combines magazine pictures and text in the form of word association game.

Quote:
Images from magazines and colour supplements accompany a spoken text taken from Word Associations and Linguistic Theory by the American psycholinguist Herbert H Clark. By using the ambiguities inherent in the English language, Associations sets language against itself. Image and word work together/against each other to destroy/create meaning.

John Smith - 1975 - Associations [DVD-PAL].mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	6 min 12 s
Size: 	114 MiB
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https://nitro.download/view/DEAB0918208EDF0/John_Smith_-_1975_-_Associations__DVD-PAL_.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post John Smith – Associations (1975) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Alexander Stewart, notes for screening at Pioneer Works, New York 2015, wrote:
A mesmerizing experimental documentary that presents a discussion of the manufacture of glass as a way to explore memory and transformation. Filled with Smith’s signature witty wordplay and elegant visual punning, Slow Glass also quietly ponders weighter issues of urban transformation and the value placed on craftsmanship.

Jim Supanick, As a Chimney Draws, 2012, wrote:
It’s a special sensitivity that can extract true visual poetry from pub interiors and charmless London street corners, and something much, much more to integrate this dense web of visual and verbal association around the ostensible theme of glass. Drawing on a panopoly of camera and editing tricks and conjoined with a glazier’s nostalgic reveries, Smith expresses a great deal about vision and optics, the changing city, obsolescent craft traditions, and a more elusive sense of loss.

John Smith - 1991 - Slow Glass [DVD-PAL].mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	40 min 9 s
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https://nitro.download/view/0A5675E630CD074/John_Smith_-_1991_-_Slow_Glass__DVD-PAL_.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post John Smith – Slow Glass (1991) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

The buzzing of an electric razor is replaced by Om chanting as a sharp-looking man gets ready.

Gary Davis wrote:
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.

Peter Kubelka, ‘What is Film’ lecture series, National Film Theatre, London 2001, wrote:
This is hardcore cinema.

John Smith - 1986 - Om [DVD-PAL].mkv

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Runtime: 	3 min 38 s
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https://nitro.download/view/DDEBB264A047A4C/John_Smith_-_1986_-_Om__DVD-PAL_.mkv

Language(s):None
Subtitles:None

The post John Smith – Om (1986) first appeared on Cinema of the World.