QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM TALLINN

What’s in a name? A lot, apparently. Or so argues experimental British filmmaker, John Smith in his new film Being John Smith. Smith would know first hand, of course, as he had the unfortunate and hardly peculiar curse of growing up with the name John Smith. John Smith is, of course, the most common name in the Anglophone world. In England alone, some 30,000 people use it. They include plenty of world-historical figures such as John Smith the 17th century English explorer and Pocahontas character; John Smith the 18th century painter; John Smith the 1990s Labour party leader; John Smith the 21st Century comic book writer; and John Smith the human alias of the Doctor from Dr. Who; just to name a few. As an artist and filmmaker who has long secretly harboured the desire to be mega-famous, John Smith the 70 year old director of Being John Smith sees his John Smith-ness as a curse he’s long been struggling against.

Through onscreen text and dry, witty voiceover delivered by Smith, the film is a 27-minute long hilarious philosophical investigation into the workings of language, individuality, and the life of the artist as a semi-famous nobody with ordinary frustrations and worries. Early on in the film, Smith interrupts what has till then been a fairly straightforward account of his life story, including childhood nicknames like Piddly Smith and Big John, to muse about the belief that artists make their most adventurous works when they’re young and become more politically conservative when they’re older.

Apparently offended, Smith suddenly pivots the film into a more digressive and adventurous form, rebuking these misperceptions by showing us his full range of curiosity. Griping about everything from his parents’ complete lack of imagination to the “suspicious ordinariness” of his name which has left many to assume it’s a pseudonym to such tangential subjects as the seeming onrush of World War III and the unique ugliness of the Tate and Lyle Sugar factory in London – the pleasure of watching film comes from simply spending time with such an acerbic and unique voice. He may end the film with a sly reference to Pulp’s song Common People, but there’s nothing common or anonymous about Smith’s self-deprecating, infinitely delightful, and thought-provoking voice.

Being John Smith just premiered in the PÖFF Shorts section of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.