Hotel Diaries: John Smith

Made in Ireland, October 8th, 2001.

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

Frozen War is the first episode in the Hotel Diaries series, a collection of video recordings made in the world’s hotel rooms, which relate personal experiences and reflections to contemporary conflicts in the Middle East.

"...Shot early in the morning, just after the U.S. and Britain started bombing Afghanistan, it's narrated by Smith, who describes how he worried about a blown-up transmitter when he found only a static face on TV. The slow pace and rambling form become apt correlatives for Smith's own confusion."

--Fred Camper, Chicago Reader

This title is also available on Hotel Diaries: John Smith.

Made in Germany, October 14th, 2004

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.

Museum Piece is the second episode in the Hotel Diaries series, a collection of video recordings made in the world's hotel rooms, which relate personal experiences and reflections to contemporary conflicts in the Middle East.

"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, Cork Film Festival, Ireland (2005)

This title is also available on Hotel Diaries: John Smith.

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 episode in the Hotel Diaries series, a collection of video recordings made in the world’s hotel rooms, which relate personal experiences and reflections to contemporary conflicts in the Middle East.

"... 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)

This title is also available on Hotel Diaries: John Smith.

UK, November 26th 2005

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.

B & B is the fourth episode in the Hotel Diaries series, a collection of video recordings made in the world’s hotel rooms, which relate personal experiences and reflections to contemporary conflicts in the Middle East. 

This title is also available on Hotel Diaries: John Smith.

Netherlands, January 29th 2006/January 29th 2007

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. Pyramids/Skunk is a double episode in the Hotel Diaries series, a collection of video recordings made in the world’s hotel rooms, which relate personal experiences and reflections to contemporary conflicts in the Middle East.

“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)

This title is also available on Hotel Diaries: John Smith.

Palestine, April 15th-16th 2007

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. Dirty Pictures is the seventh episode in the Hotel Diaries series, a collection of video recordings made in the world's hotel rooms, which relate personal experiences and reflections to contemporary conflicts in the Middle East.

"...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)

This title is also available on Hotel Diaries: John Smith.

Ireland, October 20th 2007

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.

Six Years Later is the eighth episode in the Hotel Diaries series, a collection of video recordings made in the world’s hotel rooms, which relate personal experiences and reflections to contemporary conflicts in the Middle East.

This title is only available on Hotel Diaries: John Smith.