The Girl Chewing Gum   00:12:00 1976
"In The Girl Chewing Gum a commanding voiceover appears to direct the action in a busy London street. As the instructions become more absurd and fantasized, we realize that the supposed director (not the shot) is fictional; he only describes—not prescribes—the events that take place before him. Smith embraced the Ôspectre of narrative' (suppressed by structural film) to play word against picture and chance against order. Sharp and direct, the film anticipates the more elaborate scenarios to come: witty, many-layered, punning, but also seriously and poetically haunted by drama's ineradicable ghost." —A.L. Rees, A Directory of British Film and Video Artists (Luton, UK: Arts Council of England/University of Luton Press, 1996) Also available on: Compilation: John Smith: Program 1	Biography of John Smith Titles by John Smith: Associations B & B The Black Tower Blight Dirty Pictures Frozen War Gargantuan The Girl Chewing Gum The Kiss Lost Sound Museum Piece Om Pyramids/Skunk Regression Six Years Later Slow Glass Throwing Stones The Waste Land Worst Case Scenario Work by John Smith also appears on: Compilation: Hotel Diaries: John Smith Compilation: John Smith: Program 1 Compilation: John Smith: Program 2