An Evening with John Smith

John Smith, Pyramids / Skunk (Hotel Diaries #5), 2006–07. Courtesy of the artist

Few filmmakers have unsettled the boundaries between documentary and fiction, abstraction and representation, and the personal and political as slyly—or as ingeniously—as British artist-filmmaker John Smith. A towering figure in experimental film and CATE’s very first visiting artist, Smith returns with a program pairing the 16mm deadpan masterpiece The Girl Chewing Gum (1976)—widely considered one of the most influential avant-garde films of the 20th century—with incendiary and deeply personal works made since his 2001 CATE debut. Two chapters from the extraordinary Hotel Diaries connect the anonymous spaces of international accommodations to war and occupation, while Dad’s Stick (2012) and the multi-award-winning Being John Smith (2024) reckon with family history, aging, fame, and making art amid political catastrophe. The Chicago premiere of Two Pids (2026) concludes the evening.

Curated by Abina Manning, Video Data Bank’s longtime director emerita and curator of Smith’s first CATE program in 2001, the evening reflects the lasting influence of the international networks and curatorial expertise Manning and generations of VDB staff have brought to the series.

Followed by a conversation with John Smith and Abina Manning.

1976–2026, United Kingdom/Switzerland/Netherlands
In English
Format: 16mm and digital
ca. 76 min.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

John Smith is a British artist-filmmaker whose slyly humorous and formally rigorous works explore the unstable boundaries between documentary, fiction, representation, and abstraction. Since 1972, Smith has created more than 60 films, videos, and installations, earning major international festival prizes, as well as the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists in 2011 and the Jarman Award in 2013. His 2024 film Being John Smith was a finalist for the European Film Academy Awards. Recent solo exhibitions include the Vienna Secession, Kate MacGarry, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. His work is held in such collections as Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and FRAC Île-de-France. Smith lives and works in London and Aude, France, and is Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at the University of East London.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Abina Manning is a curator and writer who has supported artists’ film and video for more than 40 years. From 2006 to 2021, she served as executive director of Chicago’s Video Data Bank (VDB), where she championed the distribution, preservation, and presentation of experimental moving-image work and developed enduring relationships with artists and programmers around the world. Prior to her time at VDB, Manning was director of exhibition at the LUX Centre and director of the inaugural Pandæmonium Festival of Moving Images at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts. She currently lives and works in Berlin.

PROGRAM

The Girl Chewing Gum
1976, 16mm, 12 min.

In The Girl Chewing Gum a commanding voice-over appears to direct the action on a busy East London street corner. As the narrator’s instructions become increasingly impossible, the illusion collapses.

Smith’s “avant-garde masterpiece exposes how cinema manufactures meaning through narration. A brilliant reflection on filmmaking, authorship and control.”—Nana Bahlmann, Seriously, Sprüth Magers, 2026

Being John Smith
2024, 27 min.

“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

Throwing Stones (Hotel Diaries #3)
2004, 11 min.

Recorded in a Swiss hotel shortly after the death of Yasser Arafat, the third installment of Smith’s Hotel Diaries takes the generic furnishings of temporary lodging—a bed, mirror, and desk—as points of departure for reflections on the post-9/11 world. As the film shifts from dry observation to political critique, the apparent safety and anonymity of the hotel room are unsettled by the wars, occupations, and histories surrounding it.

Pyramids/Skunk (Hotel Diaries #5)
2006–07, 16 min.

Composed from footage recorded in Rotterdam hotel rooms exactly one year apart, Pyramids/Skunk is the fifth entry in Smith’s Hotel Diaries. In the first room, a snack and a festival catalog describing Smith as a famous experimental filmmaker set off a chain of associations, leading from the minibar to the pyramids and, finally, to Hamas’s recent victory in the Palestinian elections. In a different room a year later, Smith considers his immediate surroundings, events beyond them, and the year in between.

Dad’s Stick
2012, 5 min.

Dad’s Stick features three well-used objects that were shown to the artist by his father shortly before he died. Two of these were so steeped in history that their original forms and functions were almost completely obscured. The third object seemed to be instantly recognizable, but it turned out to be something else entirely. Focusing on these ambiguous artifacts and events relating to their history, Dad’s Stick creates a dialogue between abstraction and literal meaning. Looking back over half a century, Smith’s homage to his late father examines the texture of memory and the things people leave behind.

Two Pids
2026, 5 min.

After the world premiere of his film Being John Smith at the Toronto International Film Festival, an unexpected encounter in the artist’s hotel causes him to question the nature of reality.

ACCESSIBILITY

Conversations at the Edge events have live captions (CART). The Siskel Film Center is fully ADA accessible and its theaters are equipped with hearing loops. For other accessibility requests, please visit saic.edu/access or write cate@saic.edu.

TICKETS

$14 General public
$9 Students & seniors
$8 Film Center members
$8 SAIC staff & faculty & AIC staff
FREE for SAIC students with a valid ID

All CATE programs are free for SAIC students. Unless otherwise noted, SAIC student tickets are released five days prior to showtime. Tickets must be picked up in person from the Siskel Film Center box office. A student ID is required.

RESOURCE GUIDES

Articles, interviews, and other material related to upcoming artists and events. Coming soon.