Hotel Diaries

As part of May ‘68 – When Culture Was Radicalised, a series of talks and screenings reflecting on the cultural significance of the Sixties in the context of today’s turbulent times, Watershed is delighted to welcome award-winning artist and filmmaker John Smith to present the UK premiere of Hotel Diaries, following its recent screening at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.Made in hotel rooms across the world over a period of six years, this latest feature-length work is a politically engaged, perfectly observed and often very funny series of video recordings, each relating personal experiences and reflections to the current conflicts in the Middle East. Playing upon chance and coincidence, the hotel room is employed as a 'found' film set, where the architecture, furnishing and decoration become the means by which the filmmaker’s small adventures are linked to major world events.

Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Creative Director, said of the film’s significance:

"Much is currently being written about the impact of May '68 on culture - but do we have a film culture which has realised any of the radical political aspirations? Hotel Diaries, directed by John Smith, is one such film. In it, Smith manages to bring together the personal, political and poetic. A simple idea - filming a diary in a hotel room - becomes a radical meditation on war, the Middle East and global tensions. Hotel Diaries, in its own subtle way, is as radical filmmaking as was being asked for in May ’68."

    Prizes:

    Museum Piece (2004):

  • 50th Cork International Film Festival, Ireland 2005: Best International Short Film awarded by the International Jury.
  • 11th Biennial of Moving Images, Geneva, Switzerland 2005: Prix du Centre pour l’image contemporaine, Saint-Gervais Genève awarded by the International Jury.
  • One World 7th International Human Rights Film Festival, Prague, Czech Republic 2005: Honorable Mention by the International Jury.

    • Pyramids/Skunk (2006-7):

  • ‘International Festival of New Film’, Split, Croatia 2007: Grand Prix (Best Short Film).
  • Lucca Film Festival, Italy 2007: Grand Prix (ex aequo).

    • For Dirty Pictures (2007):

  • 50th Leipzig International Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, Germany 2007: Honorary Mention for an Outstanding Documentary Film by the International Jury.

Hotel Diaries (15)

John Smith, 2001-7 82 mins

Hotel Diaries consists of a series of video recordings made in the world’s hotel rooms over the past six years, all of which relate personal experiences to the current conflicts in the Middle East. In these works, which play upon chance and co-incidence, the hotel room is employed as a 'found' film set, where the architecture, furnishing and decoration become the means by which the filmmaker’s small adventures are linked to major world events. Works in the series include Frozen War (Ireland, 2001), Museum Piece (Germany, 2004), Throwing Stones (Switzerland, 2004), B & B (England, 2005), Pyramids/Skunk (The Netherlands 2006/7), Dirty Pictures (Palestine 2007) and Six Years Later (Ireland 2007).

"…These deceptively unassuming works consist of single takes from the point of view of Smith's camcorder as he explores the nocturnal spaces of hotels he is staying in and delivers monologues on his thoughts and observations. At once politically concerned and very funny, these brilliantly structured ramblings connect the observations of his surroundings with the horror of world events in consistently surprising ways." Maximilian Le Cain, Film Ireland Magazine.

  1. Frozen War

    John Smith, Ireland, October 8th 2001. 11 mins.

    A disorientating experience while attempting to watch the TV news in an Irish hotel room triggers a spontaneous response to the bombing of Afghanistan.

    "In Frozen War, UK artist John Smith, holed up in a hotel room far from home, turns the tables on the TV news as he starts to ask the questions they never do." Abina Manning, programme notes for Video Mundi Film Festival, Chicago.

  2. Museum Piece

    John Smith, Germany, October 14th 2004. 12 mins.

    While the Iraq war continues, a day's sightseeing and the features of a German hotel provoke a stream of thoughts about events large and small.

    "Using the smallest means to tell a great deal, Museum Piece is both a personal film and also a reflection on social and political issues, combining humour with serious commentary on past and present concerns. It brings to the foreground the difficulties of taking a position, facing the complex realities of our times." International Jury Statement, 50th Cork International Film Festival, Ireland 2005 (Best International Short Film).

    3. Throwing Stones

    John Smith, Switzerland, November 13th 2004. 11 mins.

    As the camera looks out through a barred window and the clock strikes four in a Swiss city, the death of Yasser Arafat provides the starting point for a journey back in time.

    "Throwing Stones is the third of his hotel room films. Through seemingly free, but in fact highly structured associations he guides the spectator (and in his case also listener) back to other hotel rooms and historical events. Bed, mirror, desk, the picture on the wall - that's all he needs to reflect in a both personal and analytic way on the world post 9/11." Dana Linssen, FIPRESCI Report, Oberhausen Festival 2005

  3. B & B

    John Smith, UK, November 26th 2005. 6 mins.

    The perception of an Anglo-American hotel room is coloured by new revelations about 'The War on Terror' and 'The Special Relationship' that exists between Britain and the USA.

  4. Pyramids/Skunk

    John Smith, Netherlands, January 29th 2006 / January 29th 2007. 16 mins.

    Hamas have just won the Palestinian elections and a chocolate bar in a Rotterdam hotel room eventually reminds the filmmaker that there are more important things going on in the world outside. Exactly one year later he returns to the same city and checks in at a very different hotel.

    “The best piece in Program 2 is John Smith's Pyramids/Skunk (Hotel Diaries 5). Smith's visual and voice-over comments on the minute details of two hotel rooms have a wry self-indulgence that sets up his observations on the real-world horrors in Palestine.” Fred Camper, Chicago Reader 2007

  5. Dirty Pictures

    John Smith, Palestine, April 15th / 16th 2007. 14 mins.

    Moving from one hotel in Bethlehem to another in East Jerusalem, the filmmaker encounters a series of problems involving a ceiling, a video camera and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

    "The hotel has been renovated after the Israeli army abandoned it, but history refuses to be erased. The ceiling offers resistance. It requires John Smith's keen eye and wry British comment to reveal this. Brilliantly, he manages to trim down the monstrosity of history to human proportions.” International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2007

  6. Six Years Later

    John Smith, Ireland, October 20th 2007. 9 mins.

    The filmmaker returns to the city where he made the first video in the series and looks back at the events of the past six years.