A wry reflection on what it means to have a terribly generic name in another offering from iconic experimental filmmaker John Smith. 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. Through his characteristic deadpan humour and a deceivingly simple premise, Being John Smith deftly weaves together the personal and the political.

The film is both a portrait of the artist as an aging and vulnerable man and a reflection on the unease of creating art in the unfolding horrors of the world in 2024. Whilst situated in a particular moment, both personally and politically, it is a sentiment of the fragility and futility of life and art that is universally translatable. The film even looks in on the futility of itself, expressing concern that a ‘voice-over accompanied by illustrative images’ will be too conventional. But, of course, John Smith finds ways to defy the conventional, weaving the film in dialogue with itself through the interplay of voice and text.

Being John Smith is screened with Leçon d’objet by Herman Asselberghs, a film of the same year that reflects on the act of image making through portraits.

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