https://purge.xxx purge.xxx Sun, 14 Jul 2024 12:35:24 +0000 https://purge.xxx en https://purge.xxx/dbd Sun, 14 Jul 2024 12:35:24 +0000 purge.xxx https://purge.xxx/dbd Dive Bar Discs is a subscriber-only mixtape project.CD/cass + image + text. Sold at cost price and numbering no more than 23 each.&nbsp;No permissions, no digital.sign-up:&nbsp; &nbsp; *insert sign-up form*DBD001 Stanley Schtinter DBD002 Perry Shimon DBD003 Chris Petit DBD004 Sean Price Williams DBD005 Nick Pinkerton https://purge.xxx/johnsmith Fri, 19 Aug 2022 09:11:08 +0000 purge.xxx https://purge.xxx/johnsmith <img width="1294" height="1302" width_o="1294" height_o="1302" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/073d832da9df9a9ef35fcdc6a09542458d28226c57b36f285b20a7677538a3dd/Screenshot-2022-08-19-at-10.18.52.png" data-mid="150802261" border="0" data-scale="87" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/073d832da9df9a9ef35fcdc6a09542458d28226c57b36f285b20a7677538a3dd/Screenshot-2022-08-19-at-10.18.52.png" /> BLIGHTcomplete soundtrack from the film by JOHN SMITHmusic by JOCELYN POOK order at purge.xxx <img width="1296" height="1302" width_o="1296" height_o="1302" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/67d30bb9e08a3cd4678e0291dd54d438106e576582839dd5135b1fe60ae51a99/Screenshot-2022-08-19-at-10.32.53.png" data-mid="150803078" border="0" data-scale="87" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/67d30bb9e08a3cd4678e0291dd54d438106e576582839dd5135b1fe60ae51a99/Screenshot-2022-08-19-at-10.32.53.png" /> <img width="2362" height="1772" width_o="2362" height_o="1772" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/24fee9c1fc51d997120055e38928143deffc006dc569db374a556f01f3596b92/Week-1---BLIGHT.jpg" data-mid="150803488" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/24fee9c1fc51d997120055e38928143deffc006dc569db374a556f01f3596b92/Week-1---BLIGHT.jpg" /> OCTOBER 1Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *SOLD-OUT* LAUNCH EVENT (1972–2020) With JOHN SMITH and JOCELYN POOK live in conversation To celebrate the release of the vinyl LP soundtrack of BLIGHT, JOHN SMITH’s collaboration with composer JOCELYN POOK, the artist filmmaker’s INTROSPECTIVE (50 films from 50 years) launches with a focus on SMITH’s music related works. Several of these films feature in the chronological programmes that follow the launch (October 6–December 1) with others, commissions made for CHARLES HAYWARD and ECHO &amp; THE BUNNYMEN, screening exclusively at this event. Triangles (1972)7P (1978)Shine So Hard (1981)Gargantuan (1992)Blight (1994–96)Song for Europe (2017) The Camera, The Actor (2019)Twice (2020) (more info) <img width="1772" height="1329" width_o="1772" height_o="1329" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c9198b599111432faabd6b60c53f21909410066adca0eb3b271c780174d24f03/Week-2---ASSOCIATIONS.jpg" data-mid="150831402" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c9198b599111432faabd6b60c53f21909410066adca0eb3b271c780174d24f03/Week-2---ASSOCIATIONS.jpg" /> OCTOBER 6 Close-Up Film Centre &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *SOLD-OUT* Programme 1 (1972–76)With JOHN SMITH and STANLEY SCHTINTER live in conversation Triangles (1972) Someone Moving (1972) The Hut (1973) Words (1973) with Lis Rhodes Out the Back (1974) William and the Cows (1974) Faces (1974) Associations (1975) Leading Light (1975) The Girl Chewing Gum (1976) (more info) <img width="2362" height="1772" width_o="2362" height_o="1772" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/33a0d5f0abc3e67f94132dc549bf48ec9b57c58b625c838118139e0ff7e96448/Week-3---HACKNEY-MARSHES.jpg" data-mid="150832150" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/33a0d5f0abc3e67f94132dc549bf48ec9b57c58b625c838118139e0ff7e96448/Week-3---HACKNEY-MARSHES.jpg" /> OCTOBER 13Close-Up Film Centre&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *SOLD OUT* Programme 2&nbsp; (1976–78)With JOHN SMITH and ERIKA BALSOM live in conversation Summer Diary (1976–77) Gardner (1977) Hackney Marshes (1977 [November 4]) Hackney Marshes (1978, TV version) (more info) <img width="2362" height="1772" width_o="2362" height_o="1772" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f2ca076ffa5ed12c11fb77df7058b36ce0635b2ad611d196ef411d1c0153548f/Week-4---SHEPHERD-S-DELIGHT.jpg" data-mid="150833153" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f2ca076ffa5ed12c11fb77df7058b36ce0635b2ad611d196ef411d1c0153548f/Week-4---SHEPHERD-S-DELIGHT.jpg" /> OCTOBER 20Close-Up Film Centre&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *SOLD OUT*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Programme 3 (1978–84)With JOHN SMITH and JULIET JACQUES live in conversation Double Shutter (1978/2018) 7P (1978) Celestial Navigation (1980) Light Sleep (1981) Shepherd’s Delight (an analysis of humour) (1980–84) (more info) <img width="2835" height="2126" width_o="2835" height_o="2126" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6f089565bab881965e8a7c3eea327af94240f4a644a9029f32d3a5765b659f68/Week-5---THE-BLACK-TOWER.jpg" data-mid="150833249" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6f089565bab881965e8a7c3eea327af94240f4a644a9029f32d3a5765b659f68/Week-5---THE-BLACK-TOWER.jpg" /> OCTOBER 27 Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *SOLD OUT*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Programme 4 (1985–92) With JOHN SMITH and CAROL MORLEY live in conversation Om (1986) The Black Tower (1985–87) Dungeness (1987) Slow Glass (1988–91) Gargantuan (1992) (more info) <img width="2362" height="1772" width_o="2362" height_o="1772" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ebacd08bc6a8551eb97638f9a8c9b1d2e4ee7996942a057119362de48e2411ac/Week-6---BLIGHT.jpg" data-mid="150833292" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ebacd08bc6a8551eb97638f9a8c9b1d2e4ee7996942a057119362de48e2411ac/Week-6---BLIGHT.jpg" /> NOVEMBER 3 Close-Up Film Centre&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *SOLD OUT*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Programme 5 (1993–96) With JOHN SMITH and IAN BOURN live in conversation Home Suite (1993–94)Blight (1994–96) (more info) <img width="1800" height="1350" width_o="1800" height_o="1350" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c97bb0fd5e1ce1707259cd0eadacc55f69246ec6f130b6e95df6a2919c3dcb94/Week-7---WORST-CASE-SCENARIO.jpg" data-mid="150833491" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c97bb0fd5e1ce1707259cd0eadacc55f69246ec6f130b6e95df6a2919c3dcb94/Week-7---WORST-CASE-SCENARIO.jpg" /> NOVEMBER 10 Close-Up Film Centre&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *SOLD OUT* Programme 6 (1998–2003) With JOHN SMITH and GARETH EVANS live in conversation The Kiss (1999) with Ian Bourn The Waste Land (1999) Regression (1999) Lost Sound (1998–2001) with Graeme Miller Worst Case Scenario (2001–03) (more info) <img width="1800" height="1350" width_o="1800" height_o="1350" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3a363b7af5945018f921ac309e1f244a40f410030c4f0c2e5cd68f65342a75b0/Week-8---HOTEL-DIARIES.jpg" data-mid="150833627" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3a363b7af5945018f921ac309e1f244a40f410030c4f0c2e5cd68f65342a75b0/Week-8---HOTEL-DIARIES.jpg" /> NOVEMBER 17Close-Up Film Centre&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; *SOLD OUT* Programme 7 (2001–07) With JOHN SMITH and ALIA SYED live in conversation Hotel Diaries (2001–07) (more info) <img width="1800" height="1013" width_o="1800" height_o="1013" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4fc34b88bb16b5a6296c4766e59d63057dc8e734c612066737f74ee88a68e904/Week-9---SOFT-WORK.jpg" data-mid="150833874" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4fc34b88bb16b5a6296c4766e59d63057dc8e734c612066737f74ee88a68e904/Week-9---SOFT-WORK.jpg" /> NOVEMBER 24 Close-Up Film Centre&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; *SOLD OUT* Programme 8 (2010–12) With JOHN SMITH and IAIN SINCLAIR live in conversation Flag Mountain (2010) Demo Tape (2010) Unusual Red Cardigan (2011) The Man Phoning Mum (2011) Soft Work (2012) (more info) <img width="2278" height="1329" width_o="2278" height_o="1329" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/03306191610cfd3cdf62da5d5e84bff9dd4f486a98d263d5bdb6b1135357870d/Week-10---COVID-MESSAGES.jpg" data-mid="150834058" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/03306191610cfd3cdf62da5d5e84bff9dd4f486a98d263d5bdb6b1135357870d/Week-10---COVID-MESSAGES.jpg" /> DECEMBER 1Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; *SOLD OUT* Programme 9&nbsp;(2012–21) (2012-21)With JOHN SMITH and JARVIS COCKER live in conversation Dad's Stick (2012) White Hole (2014)Steve Hates Fish (2015)Who Are We? (2016) Song for Europe (2017)Jour de Fête (2017) A State of Grace (2019)Citadel (2020)Covid Messages (2020) Time and Motion (for A L Rees) (2021) Record (2021) (more info) DECEMBER 1–31Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)&nbsp; &nbsp; (Screen 3 [online])&nbsp; Coda :&nbsp;REGRESSIONA portrait of the artist as a not so young man. The filmmaker attempts to enter the digital age by making a new video version of his 1978 film 7P. “John Smith is not afraid of time. His films continuously show his patience in setting up a visual pun, filming certain angles over several days or months in order to develop our sense of place and flux. Regression makes time a focus of his humour. As he recreates a film he made 21 years earlier, he tapes each of the twelve days of Christmas, getting progressively younger as he replays the chorus of the accompanying song.”&nbsp; &nbsp; - Chris Kennedy (more info) <img width="3000" height="2250" width_o="3000" height_o="2250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2e78901d8469362433ad491f42cd78ec4145fea0b09c1e167887613294c28b02/eiL-Pjsg.jpeg" data-mid="151094912" border="0" data-scale="77" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2e78901d8469362433ad491f42cd78ec4145fea0b09c1e167887613294c28b02/eiL-Pjsg.jpeg" /> <img width="1541" height="1400" width_o="1541" height_o="1400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f3c773ded1af28bac34ca297783171d2a2aee6888401188b36c0da0f58baf330/021_Bandcamp-5.jpeg" data-mid="165128652" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f3c773ded1af28bac34ca297783171d2a2aee6888401188b36c0da0f58baf330/021_Bandcamp-5.jpeg" /> NO Lcomplete soundtrack from the films 7P + REGRESSIONmusic by JOHN SMITHorder at purge.xxx <img width="1541" height="1400" width_o="1541" height_o="1400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4364e28f5a845bc4c737271ffd55bda43b5db92a9370e5581deae31d2d633a42/021_Bandcamp-4.jpeg" data-mid="165128746" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4364e28f5a845bc4c737271ffd55bda43b5db92a9370e5581deae31d2d633a42/021_Bandcamp-4.jpeg" /> https://purge.xxx/1 Sat, 20 Aug 2022 13:16:51 +0000 purge.xxx https://purge.xxx/1 <img width="1772" height="1329" width_o="1772" height_o="1329" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c9198b599111432faabd6b60c53f21909410066adca0eb3b271c780174d24f03/Week-2---ASSOCIATIONS.jpg" data-mid="150876387" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c9198b599111432faabd6b60c53f21909410066adca0eb3b271c780174d24f03/Week-2---ASSOCIATIONS.jpg" /> OCTOBER 6 Close-Up Film Centre, London &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (tickets)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; closeupfilmcentre.com &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (previous event) Programme 1 (1972–76)With JOHN SMITH and STANLEY SCHTINTER live in conversation Triangles (1972, 3m.&nbsp;SD video from 16mm) Smith’s first 16mm film comprises abstract animation punctuated by found footage, cut to music by The Velvet Underground. Someone Moving (1972, 5m. SD video from 16mm) Choreographed actions of a moving figure, broken down into still frames and reanimated in superimposed layers. Soundtrack by Peter Cusack. The Hut (1973, 5m. SD video from 16mm) An experiment into visual rhythms that animates still photographs of a decaying building. Words (1973, 7m. HD video from 16mm) with Lis Rhodes An exploration of arbitrary meaning involving random combinations of words. Out the Back (1974, 5m. HD video from Super 8mm [silent]) An improvisation around the view from an urban window, the first of Smith’s films to be edited in camera. William and the Cows (1974, 6m. HD video from Super 8mm re-filmed on 16mm [silent]) Slowed down glimpses of life on the island of Sark. “One of the most surreal films I have ever seen.” &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Malcolm Le Grice Faces (1974, 6m. HD video from 16mm [silent]) A study of movement and stasis involving the animation of still photographs. Associations (1975, 7m. HD video from 16mm) Images from magazines and colour supplements accompany a spoken text taken from Word Associations and Linguistic Theory by Herbert H Clark. Playing upon ambiguities inherent in the English language, Associations sets language against itself. Image and word work together/against each other to destroy/create meaning. Leading Light (1975, 11m. HD video from 16mm) “Leading Light uses the camera-eye to reveal the irregular beauty of a familiar space. When we inhabit a room we are only unevenly aware of the space held in it and the possible forms of vision which reside there. The camera-eye documents and returns our apprehension. Vertov imagined a ‘single room’ made up of a montage of many different rooms. Smith reverses this aspect of ‘creative geography’ by showing how many rooms the camera can create from just one.” &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;A L Rees The Girl Chewing Gum (1976, 12m. HD video from 16mm) 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 takes the piss out of mainstream auteurist ego, but provides proof of the underground ethos: Even with meagre mechanical means, the artist can command the universe." &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Ed Halter TRT 66 mins (next event) https://purge.xxx/2 Mon, 22 Aug 2022 12:35:04 +0000 purge.xxx https://purge.xxx/2 <img width="2362" height="1772" width_o="2362" height_o="1772" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/33a0d5f0abc3e67f94132dc549bf48ec9b57c58b625c838118139e0ff7e96448/Week-3---HACKNEY-MARSHES.jpg" data-mid="151005963" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/33a0d5f0abc3e67f94132dc549bf48ec9b57c58b625c838118139e0ff7e96448/Week-3---HACKNEY-MARSHES.jpg" /> OCTOBER 13 Close-Up Film Centre, London&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (tickets) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; closeupfilmcentre.com &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (previous event) Programme 2&nbsp; (1976–78)With JOHN SMITH and ERIKA BALSOM live in conversation Summer Diary (1976-7, 30m. HD video from 16mm) Filmed in London during the summer of 1976, the view from the filmmaker’s window becomes the locus for a series of visual and verbal descriptions of the past and present.&nbsp; “The film’s concern lies in memory and the awkward distance between reminiscence and fact, personal accounts and objective phenomena … The function of memory presented through reminiscence and re-enactment presents the subjective at odds with objectifying mechanical devices (such as camera, thermometer, calendar) but engaged in the construction of a personal and historical position.”&nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Michael Maziere Gardner (1977, 6m. SD video from 16mm) An experiment with densely layered information, commissioned by EMI to explore the possibilities of the newly invented video disc. Gardner was inspired by the man cited in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s fastest novelist. Erle Stanley Gardner, the mystery writer who created Perry Mason, dictated up to ten thousand words per day and worked with his staff on as many as seven novels simultaneously. Hackney Marshes - November 4th 1977&nbsp;(1977, 15m. HD video from 16mm [silent]) An improvisation recorded over the course of one day, starting at dawn and finishing after dusk. &nbsp;The film was edited in camera and shot from one camera position in the middle of one of the 112 football pitches that covered Hackney Marsh, a location chosen because of the similarities between the surrounding buildings and objects. Unforeseen events occurring in the vicinity were also recorded, influencing the direction of the subsequent filming. Through selective framing and changes in cutting pace and speed of camera movement, the film fluctuates between record and abstraction. Hackney Marshes (Thames Television [commissioned by] TV version) (1978, 30m. HD video from 16mm) “Explicitly challenging all the accepted forms of the TV documentary, John Smith’s important film is extraordinary as the product of a major institution. The dual subjects are the inhabitants of tower blocks in Hackney and the components and conventions of filmmaking. Interviews with the former are cut against a limited sequence of compositions which illustrate and question the soundtrack in a number of distinct ways. Repetition, sharp editing, unlikely images (chalk lines, lift doors closing) and the deliberate reversal of normal devices all work to disorientate the viewer and to force a reconsideration of his or her relationship to the film. The overall result is, perhaps surprisingly, given the theoretical concerns, a strangely intimate picture of the subjects.&nbsp; Importantly, its success demonstrates the necessity for many TV film-makers to re-think their safe approaches and accepted techniques." &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;John Wyver TRT 81 mins (next event) https://purge.xxx/3 Mon, 22 Aug 2022 12:50:07 +0000 purge.xxx https://purge.xxx/3 <img width="2362" height="1772" width_o="2362" height_o="1772" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f2ca076ffa5ed12c11fb77df7058b36ce0635b2ad611d196ef411d1c0153548f/Week-4---SHEPHERD-S-DELIGHT.jpg" data-mid="151007233" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f2ca076ffa5ed12c11fb77df7058b36ce0635b2ad611d196ef411d1c0153548f/Week-4---SHEPHERD-S-DELIGHT.jpg" /> OCTOBER 20 Close-Up Film Centre&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (tickets)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; closeupfilmcentre.com &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (previous event) Programme 3 (1978-84)With JOHN SMITH and JULIET JACQUES live in conversation Double Shutter (1978 / 2018, 7m. SD video from 16mm) As a reassemblage of two excerpts from Blue Bathrooom (1978), Double Shutter is&nbsp;a distillation of ideas concerning the tension between representation and materiality. An apparently straightforward representational image is gradually revealed to be an artifice, foregrounding the filmmaking process as subject matter. By superimposing and alternating identical framings of three windows filmed by day and by night the film uses their positive/negative qualities to construct and break down representational images and sounds. 7P (1978, 8m. SD video from 16m) 7P is constructed around the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas, juxtaposing similar picture and sound fragments recorded on consecutive days over the Christmas period. When the seemingly predictable structure starts falling apart, nonsensical combinations of word and image begin to acquire their own unfathomable meanings. Celestial Navigation&nbsp;(1980, 10m. HD video from 16mm) “Celestial Navigation could be seen to work in the tradition of British landscape film in that it incorporates a ‘natural’ element (the Earth’s rotation) into the structure of the film. Filmed in the course of one day on a beach, the film uses pan and tilt movements to follow the shadow of a spade and retain its vertical position in the frame… Many peripheral elements come into the film, adding humour to an otherwise near scientific exercise. The tide comes in, a sandcastle is built and washed away, a cyclist crosses the scene, which all works to incorporate human presence without denying the original strategy.”&nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Michael Maziere Light Sleep (1981, 6m. HD video from 16mm) An experiment in temporal layering involving the parallel development of sound and picture. Shots of the same scenes were superimposed on each other in camera over a number of hours, up to a maximum of about a hundred superimpositions. Shepherd's Delight (an ananalysis of humour)&nbsp;(1980-4, 35m. HD video from 16mm) Shepherd’s Delight confronts the problem of humour head-on, referring directly (since a large part of the film is composed of jokes and their analysis) to the viewer’s perception of the film itself. The film is largely concerned with how context determines the reading of information. Since the film’s statements oscillate between the deadly serious (concentrating particularly on an examination of the more sinister aspects of humour) and the totally bogus, with no clearly defined points of changeover, the context is often ambiguous. This strategy undermines both the authority of the ‘serious’ statements and any predictable effect of the ‘jokes’. &nbsp; &nbsp; "Shepherd’s Delight turned on the very humour for which Smith is noted, revealing the dark as well as the light side of jokes. Doubt, scepticism and a sense of the arbitrary all pointed to deeper patterns in his films. &nbsp;The opposition of illusionism and materiality, the key motif of the post-war avant-garde cinema, is used here and elsewhere in his work to underpin subtle questioning and undercutting of the authority of the word." &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;A L Rees TRT 66 mins (next event) https://purge.xxx/4 Mon, 22 Aug 2022 12:57:57 +0000 purge.xxx https://purge.xxx/4 <img width="2835" height="2126" width_o="2835" height_o="2126" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6f089565bab881965e8a7c3eea327af94240f4a644a9029f32d3a5765b659f68/Week-5---THE-BLACK-TOWER.jpg" data-mid="151024745" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6f089565bab881965e8a7c3eea327af94240f4a644a9029f32d3a5765b659f68/Week-5---THE-BLACK-TOWER.jpg" /> OCTOBER 27 Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (tickets)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ica.art &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (previous event) Programme 4 (1985-92) With JOHN SMITH and CAROL MORLEY live in conversation Om (1986, 4m. HD video from 16mm) "This four minute film explores our response to stereotypes - &nbsp;aural, visual and ideological. &nbsp;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. &nbsp;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." &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Gary Davis "This is hardcore cinema." &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Peter Kubelka The Black Tower (1985-7, 23m. HD video from 16mm) "Smith’s 'accidental horror' film wears its constructivist tricks as a primary-coloured cloak around the barest of wireframe figures. That Smith dismisses the plot as secondary to the film itself reveals more about his artistic leanings than any supposed embracing of genre, and the fractured realism and creeping terror of the story plays out despite and because of them. Enchanting and good-humoured (as with almost all of Smith’s films), The Black Tower tells a singular story of architectural horror and madness worthy of the ungovernable geographies of Machen, Welles, or Lovecraft, situating itself firmly in the quotidian grit of Thatcher’s Britain. Constantly pointing to its own telling, as well as the mode and method of that telling, Smith’s film questions the viewer’s own certainty even as the narrator loses theirs — at the same time challenging not only the veracity of the film but also the viewer’s complacency watching it." &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Thogdin Ripley Dungeness (1987, 3m. SD video from 16mm [silent]) This film was originally made for Dungeness: The Desert in the Garden, a multi-media theatre production directed by Graeme Miller. Through selectively framing and alternating monochrome fields within the Dungeness landscape the film creates a series of abstract rhythms. Incidentally, and unbeknown to the artist until years after filming, Dungeness features a guest appearance from Derek Jarman’s then recently acquired Prospect Cottage.&nbsp; &nbsp; Slow Glass (1988-91, 40m. HD video from 16mm) "The film begins with a shout in the street and a smashed pane, and ends with a bricked-up window. Between these literal images of opening and closing, Slow Glass spins immaculately shot puns and paradoxes that play on reflection and speculation – words that refer both to acts of seeing and of mind. Glass is the key, as a narrator’s running commentary sketches the glassmaker’s art, splicing a history lesson with a quasi-autobiography. The cutting of glass is matched to the editing of film, and the camera’s lens to the surface which it captures. &nbsp;Through the pub-talk and the downing of glasses, other themes emerge; among them is the constancy of change, as the face of London alters and the past becomes present (conveyed in jump-cuts showing streets and shops changing over time and season, and in a gently ironized evocation of a 50’s childhood). &nbsp;The flowing Thames echoes the theme of flux, but also underscores the renewed attacks on East London life in the age of the property war – another kind of speculation. &nbsp;Slow Glass suggests that the living past has been turned into capitalized ‘Heritage’, that the British Documentarists’ noble craftsman only survives as a museum piece, and that reality in film is itself a fiction. &nbsp;In this film, the fiction is a crafted illusion that always has a human face." &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;A L Rees Gargantuan (1992, 1m. HD video from 16mm) “A gigantic reptile fills the frame as Smith begins to sing. The manipulative power of script and framing in film and video is sharply yet playfully highlighted in a single shot.” &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Helen Legg TRT 71 mins (next event) https://purge.xxx/5 Mon, 22 Aug 2022 16:22:41 +0000 purge.xxx https://purge.xxx/5 <img width="2362" height="1772" width_o="2362" height_o="1772" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ebacd08bc6a8551eb97638f9a8c9b1d2e4ee7996942a057119362de48e2411ac/Week-6---BLIGHT.jpg" data-mid="151024752" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ebacd08bc6a8551eb97638f9a8c9b1d2e4ee7996942a057119362de48e2411ac/Week-6---BLIGHT.jpg" /> NOVEMBER 3 Close-Up Film Centre, London&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (tickets)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; closeupfilmcentre.com &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (previous event) Programme 5 (1993-96) With JOHN SMITH and IAN BOURN live in conversation Home Suite (1993-94, 96 mins. SD video) Home Suite is a close-up journey through a domestic landscape and a journey through memory. &nbsp;Playing upon ambiguity and the unseen, the tape uses physical details of the space to trigger fragmented verbal descriptions of associated memories."John Smith takes us on a real time tour of the home from which he is being evicted, chronicling the history of the everyday items he has lived with and bringing them back to life. &nbsp;Reminiscences of the emotional scenes which have been played out on the stair carpet, the confusion of trying to remember who brought each of the many toothbrushes, and the problems of decorating the kitchen, are both hilarious and poignant. &nbsp;The ephemera and detritus of everyday life as seen through the eyes of a comic genius." &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Abina Manning"The space gradually fills with its history: complex, eccentric, funny, until it has become a kind of monumental environment, about which epic stories could be told for ever more. &nbsp;The work serves to remind us about the complexities of the history of even simple spaces and objects, a complexity to which most films do not even begin to do justice." &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Nicky Hamlyn Blight&nbsp;(1994-96, 14 mins. HD video from 16mm) Blight revolves around the building of the M11 Link Road in East London, combining images and sounds of demolition and road building with the spoken words of local residents. Taking these actualities as its starting point, Blight exploits the ambiguities of its material to create its own metaphorical fictions. The emotive power of Jocelyn Pook’s music is used in the film to overtly aid this invention, investing mundane images with dramatic significance."A stunning montage depicts the destruction of a London street to make way for new roads. The rhythmic, emotive soundtrack is partly musical and partly a collage of the residents’ voices. Shots and sounds echo and cross-link in the film’s 14 minutes to reinvent a radical documentary tradition." &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;A L Rees TRT 110 mins (next event) https://purge.xxx/6 Mon, 22 Aug 2022 16:27:13 +0000 purge.xxx https://purge.xxx/6 <img width="1800" height="1350" width_o="1800" height_o="1350" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c97bb0fd5e1ce1707259cd0eadacc55f69246ec6f130b6e95df6a2919c3dcb94/Week-7---WORST-CASE-SCENARIO.jpg" data-mid="151025306" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c97bb0fd5e1ce1707259cd0eadacc55f69246ec6f130b6e95df6a2919c3dcb94/Week-7---WORST-CASE-SCENARIO.jpg" /> NOVEMBER 10 Close-Up Film Centre, London&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (tickets)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; closeupfilmcentre.com &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (previous event) Programme 6 (1998-2003)With JOHN SMITH and GARETH EVANS live in conversation The Kiss (1999, 5 mins. HD video from 16mm) with Ian Bourn A depiction of the forced development of a hothouse flower. Organic growth is&nbsp;progressively overtaken by a more sinister, mechanical process. The Waste Land (1999, 5 mins. SD video) A personal interpretation of the poetry and letters of T S Eliot. Regression (1999, 17 mins. SD video) A portrait of the artist as a not so young man. The filmmaker attempts to enter the digital age by making a new video version of his 1978 film 7P. “John Smith is not afraid of time. His films continuously show his patience in setting up a visual pun, filming certain angles over several days or months in order to develop our sense of place and flux. Regression&nbsp; makes time a focus of his humour. As he recreates a film he&nbsp;made 21 years earlier, he tapes each of the twelve days of Christmas, getting progressively younger as he replays the chorus of the accompanying song.” &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Chris Kennedy Lost Sound (1998-2001, 28 mins. SD video) with Graeme Miller Lost Sound&nbsp;documents fragments of discarded audio-tape found on the streets of a small area of East London, combining the sound retrieved from each piece of tape with images of the place where it was found. The work explores the potential of chance, creating portraits&nbsp;of particular places by building formal, narrative and musical connections between images and sounds linked by the random discovery of the tape samples. “Visually the audio-tapes tell us almost nothing; they must be ‘decoded’ by the equipment that put them on the soundtrack. But we come to see that the signs, cars, and pedestrians in the videotape pose similar ‘decoding’ problems: what do they mean, where do they come from, who are they? A city that at first seems comprehensible is revealed as a layering of mysteries; we know no more about the passing humans from their images than we&nbsp;do about what's on the crumpled tape.”&nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Fred Camper Worst Case Scenario (2001-03, 18 mins. HD video from 35mm stills) Worst Case Scenario is constructed from a collection of still photographs depicting daily life on a Viennese street corner. Shot over the course of a week from a window overlooking the scene, the film develops themes that focus upon watching and being watched, distance and uneasy proximity. As the static world of the photographs gradually comes to life, the soundtrack introduces another, unseen, space to the viewer and an increasingly improbable chain of events and relationships starts to emerge. "Smith’s 30 years of eccentric, good-humoured and enlightening radical filmmaking opened up endless possibilities for visual creativity.&nbsp; His ‘Worst Case Scenario’, comprising a stream of movie-like images from rapidly shot camera stills taken on a Vienna street corner, is an exquisite documentation of everyday waiting, eating and road-crossing, with just a whiff of Freud." &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Keith Gallasch TRT 73 mins (next event) https://purge.xxx/7 Mon, 22 Aug 2022 16:36:42 +0000 purge.xxx https://purge.xxx/7 <img width="1800" height="1350" width_o="1800" height_o="1350" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3a363b7af5945018f921ac309e1f244a40f410030c4f0c2e5cd68f65342a75b0/Week-8---HOTEL-DIARIES.jpg" data-mid="151026359" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3a363b7af5945018f921ac309e1f244a40f410030c4f0c2e5cd68f65342a75b0/Week-8---HOTEL-DIARIES.jpg" /> NOVEMBER 17 Close-Up Film Centre, London&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (tickets)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; closeupfilmcentre.com &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (previous event) Programme 7 (2001-07)With JOHN SMITH and ALIA SYED live in conversation Hotel Diaries (2001-07, 82 mins. SD video) 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 seven video recordings that relate the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel/Palestine to Smith’s personal experiences while travelling. 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. Frozen War (Ireland, 2001) Museum Piece (Germany, 2004) Throwing Stones (Switzerland, 2004) B &amp; B (England, 2005) Pyramids/Skunk (The Netherlands 2006-07) Dirty Pictures (Palestine 2007) Six Years Later (Ireland 2007). "Several years ago I watched John Smith’s Hotel Diaries at a festival in Tampere, and left the theatre with the feeling that my idea of what film could and should do had changed forever. These short films, made in uncomfortable hotel rooms where the director stayed – almost impromptu, without any&nbsp;budget, with a small amateur camera and his own voice – keep the viewer’s attention just as well as&nbsp;a good thriller, although they have nothing in common with one.&nbsp;Smith does not look for 'beautiful' and large-scale shots as an occasion to express himself. Some little thing in an utterly unremarkable hotel room is quite enough for him to launch a chain reaction of&nbsp;associations and cause and effect relations in our heads. They take us so far from the two-dimensional&nbsp;everyday 'reality' on the screen that the inevitable return to the 'here and now' of the filming&nbsp;location resembles the sudden wakening up from sleep." &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Mikhail Zheleznikov TRT 82 mins (next event) https://purge.xxx/8 Mon, 22 Aug 2022 16:40:05 +0000 purge.xxx https://purge.xxx/8 <img width="1800" height="1013" width_o="1800" height_o="1013" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4fc34b88bb16b5a6296c4766e59d63057dc8e734c612066737f74ee88a68e904/Week-9---SOFT-WORK.jpg" data-mid="151027210" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4fc34b88bb16b5a6296c4766e59d63057dc8e734c612066737f74ee88a68e904/Week-9---SOFT-WORK.jpg" /> NOVEMBER 24 Close-Up Film Centre, London&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (tickets)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; closeupfilmcentre.com &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (previous event) Programme 8 (2010-12)With JOHN SMITH and IAIN SINCLAIR live in conversation Flag Mountain (2010, 8 mins. HD video) A view across the border in Nicosia, the divided capital of Cyprus. The camera looks over the rooftops of the Greek Cypriot south to the mountains of the Turkish Republic in the north, where a display of nationalism is enhanced by filmic means. 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. Demo Tape (2010, 5 mins. SD video) Whilst staying in a very expensive hotel in Geneva, a businessman expresses his outrage when the TV news reports a demonstration in London against student fees. unusual Red cardigan (2011, 12 mins. SD video)The filmmaker's discovery of an overpriced VHS tape of his work on eBay triggers obsessive speculation about the seller's identity. The Man Phoning Mum (2011, 12 mins, HD video) Revisiting the original locations of The Girl Chewing Gum after three and a half decades, The Man Phoning Mum retraces its camera movements and superimposes new material upon the old. Black and white passers by from 1976 meet their colourful present day counterparts in the well-trodden street, oblivious to each other’s existence. "… So, thirty-five years later, in a cultural moment now characterised by reflex nostalgia, you return to the same street corner – and the same field, or at least that’s the aim – and film again and layer the new film onto the old, the girl chewing gum and her momentary compatriots flickering through crisp video like monochrome celluloid ghosts, past and present interlaid. The fact that you’re using a different recording medium now is far from all that’s changed. The archetypal figure, here, signposted by the title The Man Phoning Mum, is toting a compact technology inconceivable in the year of Punk, a mobile phone.” &nbsp; &nbsp; -&nbsp;Martin Herbert Soft Work (2012, 37 mins. HD video) Waiting by the sea with his camera ready for action, the artist complains about the weather and attempts to describe his intentions and working methods. Soft Work is a film about the making of a film, where the viewer can only imagine what that film might be. It&nbsp;was made spontaneously during the production of Horizon (Five Pounds a Belgian), a video installation commissioned by Turner Contemporary, Margate TRT 74 mins (next event)