Hi all, We missed posting these shows coming up, as Los Angeles Filmforum is hosting John Smith from England twice next week. Note the different locations. An extremely rare visit from the UK of filmmaker John Smith, who last came to Los Angeles in the 1980s!
Friday November 16, 2012, 8:00 pm Los Angeles Filmforum presents John Smith: Small Obsessions John Smith in person from the UK! At the Echo Park Film Center, 1200 N. Alvarado St. (at Sunset), Los Angeles CA 90026 Tickets: $10 general; $6 students/seniors; free for Filmforum members. Available at Brown Paper tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/290590 ----------------- Sunday November 18, 2012, 7:30 pm Los Angeles Filmforum presents John Smith: Associations and Ambiguities At the Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90028 Tickets: $10 general; $6 students/seniors; free for Filmforum members. Available at Brown Paper tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/290592 -------------------- "The films of John Smith create a world from the simple¹ experiences of living, breathing and being a filmmaker or artist in a particular place and time. Smith's often humorous films produced over the last 30 years have inventively documented and probed his immediate surroundings, often not even moving much beyond the front door of his various abodes in a small area of East London. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to describe Smith's films as overly delicate, preciously insular or purely personal assignations that the previous description might suggest as his work sees within the minutiae of familiar surroundings a range of philosophical, aesthetic, technical and quotidian challenges and revelations that extend far beyond the realm of much other comparable cinema. In film after film, Smith explores the cracks within and the tribulations of the world he confronts everyday, taking a closer look at and often transforming (verbally, associatively, just by observing from a different angle) things like a pane of glass, the discolorations of a mouldy ceiling, a hospital water-tower, the archaeology of an ancient toilet, an old shepherd's proverb, or a work he was unhappy with some 20 odd years before. In the process, he makes us look more closely, not just at his films and the cinema generally, but our own surroundings, the everyday world that engulfs us but that we probably routinely dismiss as a suitable subject for contemplation, art and imagination." -- From On the Street where You Live: The Films of John Smith¹ <http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/29/john_smith.html> by Adrian Danks, Senses of Cinema, 2003 ³The films of John Smith are among the most widely seen and appreciated of the UK avant-garde. Rigorous in structure and highly crafted in making, they extend the logic of language to question the authority of the image and the word. Among the complex features of these films is perhaps an attempt to sidestep, in a knight¹s move, Brecht¹s critique of cinema, his ³fundamental reproach² that a film is ³the result of a production that took place in the absence of an audience². In John Smith¹s films, the spectator is a producer as well as a consumer of meaning, bound in to the process but simultaneously distanced from the naturalness¹ of the film dream.²-- From 'Associations: John Smith and the artists' film in the UK', by A L Rees, 2002 "One of the most talented filmmakers of the postwar generation, he has attracted admirers from way beyond the narrow confines of the Avant Garde. His reputation rests on a quite unique sensibility which has successfully married three traits - humour, documentary and formal ingenuity - into an indissoluble whole."-- Michael O'Pray, Art Monthly, 2002 This is the second of four shows. The first is at USC Cinematheque 108 on Thursday Nov 15; the third is at Filmforum on Sunday Nov 18, and the fourth is at Cal Arts on Tuesday Nov 20. Special Thanks: David James, Steve Anker, Rick Bahto Screening: Friday Nov 16, at the Echo Park Film Center Leading Light 1975, 11 mins The Girl Chewing Gum 1976, 12 mins The Black Tower 1985-7, 24 mins. Lost Sound 1998-2001, 28 mins Unusual Red Cardigan 2011, 12 mins (87 mins. TRT) Filmforum at Egyptian, Nov 18: Om 1986, 4 mins. Associations 1975, 7 mins. Gargantuan 1992, 1 min. Slow Glass 1988-91, 40 mins The Kiss 1999, 5 mins. Throwing Stones (Hotel Diaries 3) 2004, 11 mins. Flag Mountain 2010, 8 mins. Dad¹s Stick 2012, 5 mins. (81 mins. TRT) John Smith: John Smith was born in Walthamstow, East London in 1952 and studied film at the Royal College of Art. Inspired by conceptual art and the structural materialist ideas that dominated British artists¹ filmmaking during his formative years, but also fascinated by the immersive power of narrative and the spoken word, he has developed a body of work which deftly subverts the perceived boundaries between documentary and fiction, representation and abstraction. Drawing upon the raw material of everyday life, Smith's meticulously crafted films rework and transform reality, playfully exploring and exposing the language of cinema. Since 1972 John Smith has made over fifty film, video and installation works that have been shown in cinemas, art galleries and on television around the world and awarded major prizes at many international film festivals. His solo exhibitions include Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover (2012), Turner Contemporary, Margate (2012), Weserburg Museum for Modern Art, Bremen (2012), Uppsala Art Museum, Sweden (2011), PEER Gallery, London (2011), Pallas Projects, Dublin (2011), Royal College of Art Galleries, London (2010), Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin (2010), Sala Diaz Gallery, Texas (2010), Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2006), Kunstmuseum Magdeburg (2005), Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool (2003) and Pearl Gallery, London (2003). Major group shows include 'Image Counter Image', Haus der Kunst, Munich (2012), 'Has The Film Already Started?', Tate Britain (2011-12), Berlin Biennial (2010), The Talent Show¹, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and MoMA PS1, New York (2010), Venice Biennale (2007), A Century of Artists¹ Film in Britain¹, Tate Britain (2004), Live in Your Head: Concept and Experiment in Britain 1965-75¹, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2000) and The British Art Show¹, UK touring exhibition (1984). John Smith regularly presents his work in person and in recent years it has been profiled through retrospectives at film festivals in Oberhausen, Tampere, St. Petersburg, La Rochelle, Mexico City, Uppsala, Cork, Bristol, Hull and Glasgow. John Smith lives and works in London. He teaches part-time at the University of East London where he is Professor of Fine Art. He is represented by Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin. http://www.johnsmithfilms.com ---------------------- Filmforum¹s screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the Metabolic Studio; and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque. We also depend on our members, ticket buyers, and individual donors. Coming Soon to Los Angeles Filmforum: Nov 18 John Smith, from the UK Dec 2 - Empty Quarter, with Alain LeTourneau and Pam Minty in person from Portland Dec 5 Gunvor Nelson in person from Sweden, last Los Angeles appearance! Dec 9 Ann Arbor Film Festival 50th Anniversary Tour Los Angeles Filmforum is the city's longest-running organization screening experimental and avant-garde film and video art, documentaries, and experimental animation. 2012 is our 37th year Memberships available, $70 single, $105 dual, or $50 single student Contact us at [email protected]. www.lafilmforum.org <http://www.lafilmforum.org> Become a fan on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter!
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