Being John Smith
United Kingdom
27'
- Synopsis
- Curatorial presentation
After enduring many decades of embarrassment and discomfort, the artist finally admits that possessing the most common name in the English-speaking world has had a profound impact on his sense of self. Combining fragments of autobiography with interjections concerning confidence, self-doubt and the state of the world, BEING JOHN SMITH takes us on a confessional journey that addresses universal dilemmas as well as personal ones, revealing just how important a name can be.
What does it mean to become someone – especially someone with an enormous impact on experimental cinema – when your birth name is synonymous with the idea of “ordinary,” “banal,” “lacking distinctive features”? Mixing his unmistakable dry wit with a series of profound reflections, John Smith creates a film about identity and memory (memorability) as much as he “writes” a personal autobiography extracted from various archival materials, only to juxtapose it with Being John Malkovich and other famous cinematic [auto]biographies. At the same time, Smith reflects on his own work – particularly the seminal The Girl Chewing Gum, from 1976 – , on pop and political culture (the genocide in Gaza), and on the transformations undergone by the moving image throughout his life. (Flavia Dima)
