John Smith

Interviewed by Mark Cosgrove

Since 1972 John Smith has made more than 30 film, video and installation works. His films have been widely shown internationally in cinemas, art galleries and on television, and awarded major prizes at film festivals in Oberhausen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Cork, Palermo, Graz, Uppsala, Bangkok and Chicago. Recent screenings and exhibitions include one-person shows at the Pearl-Gallery, London and the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool and retrospectives at film festivals in Cork, Oberhausen, Uppsala and Tampere.

John Smith is Professor of Fine Art at the University of East London. Mark Cosgrove is head of programming at Watershed in Bristol.

Mark Cosgrove has worked in independent cultural film exhibition for 18 years. He is currently Head of Programming at Watershed Media Centre in Bristol, a leading cultural organisation for non-mainstream and independent cinema exhibition which screens world cinema, shorts, emerging digital form and hosts internationally renowned festivals such as Brief Encounters, Animated Encounters, Wildscreen and Resfest. He is also Creative Director of Brief Encounters, Bristol International Short Film Festival. He has been on the juries of Cork Film Festival, Leuven Kort Short Film festival and The Europa Label at Directors' Fortnight, Cannes Festival 2005.