Projects matching: John Smith

Synopsis

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

Synopsis

After enduring decades of embarrassment, the filmmaker admits that possessing the most common name in the English-speaking world has had a profound impact on his psyche. Peppered with disparate fragments of autobiography, BEING JOHN SMITH takes us on a confessional journey that reveals just how important a name can be.

Synopsis

Air safety instructions can be ambiguous.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Experimenta Strand
Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2020 - Perspective

Synopsis

A satire which pokes fun at advertising and stereotypes through the lens of a faithfully recreated 1970s cigarette advert.

Synopsis

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 below the seabed of the English Channel, shook the hand of Philippe Cozette of Calais and shouted, “Vive la France!”. On June 23rd 2016 Britain voted to leave the European Union. Inspired by a message for motorists on Eurotunnel trains, 'Song for Europe' is an underwater celebration of Britain’s connection to mainland Europe. (John Smith)
Official Selection Berlinale 2018 - Forum Expanded - World premiere

Synopsis

On the 23rd of June 2016 Britain voted to leave the European Union. This film is a re-working of material from a BBC television debate transmitted a few weeks earlier.

Synopsis

A feature length film exploring themes of identity, culture and the construction of history. Shot on 35mm film in various Californian deserts that provide a stage in which to re-enact the negotiations of an archaeologist from Cairo with a members of tribe who guard ancient culture hidden in tombs lost in the desert.
The scenario for the film was adapted from the 1969 Egyptian film 'A Night of Counting the Years' directed by Shadi Abdel Salam, creating a layered story that echoes from ancient Egypt to the diversity of desert ecology and recent archaeological digs for lost Hollywood film sets. Working in collaboration with the musician and composer Tom Challenger a new choral composition was created and recorded for the film, drawing on traditional and modern acoustic techniques to reflect the shifting sands of the desert landscapes.

Synopsis

Made by deliberately misusing a language translator app on a smartphone, Steve Hates Fish interprets the signage and architecture in a busy London shopping street. In an environment overloaded with information the signs run riot, as the confused and restless software does its best to fulfil its task.

Synopsis

While investigating her late parents’ involvement with the Anglo Iranian Oil Company (BP), the filmmaker comes across the letters of a petroleum geologist in Iran in the 1930s who was later to embark on a search for the origins of civilisation. 'The Host' sets out on its own exploration, to decipher signs from the fragmented images buried in the BP (British Petroleum) Archive. This journey through the past interweaves a number of stories drawn from both personal memory and the records of an imperial history, which builds a picture of a 20th-century colonial encounter. 'The Host' is a personal essay film about the stories we tell about ourselves and others, the facts and fictions we live by, and their consequences. (LFF brochure)
BFI London Film Festival 2015 - World premiere

Synopsis

Director Jennifer Peedom set out to uncover tension in the 2014 Everest climbing season from the point of view of the Sherpas, and instead captured a tragedy when an avalanche struck, killing 16 Sherpas. 'Sherpa' tells the story of how the Sherpas united after the tragedy in the face of fierce opposition to reclaim the mountain they call Chomolungma.
Toronto International Film Festival 2015 - International premiere

Synopsis

Looking back at his visits to Poland and East Germany many years later, the filmmaker questions idealised imaginings of life in other places, times and political systems.

Synopsis

On 8th February 2000 at Feltham Young Offenders Institute, Robert Stewart, a known violent racist, was placed in a cell with Zahid Mubarek, eventually leading to Mubarek's murder 6 weeks later.
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014 - World premiere