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The Girl Chewing Gum
In The Girl Chewing Gum, an authoritative voice-over pre-empts the events occurring in the image, seeming to order not only the people, cars, and moving objects within the screen but also the actual camera movements operated on the street in view. In relinquishing the more subtle use of voice-over in television documentary, the film draws attention to the control and directional function of that practice: imposing, judging, and creating an imaginary scene from a visual trace.
This “Big Brother” is not only looking at you but also ordering you about as the viewer’s identification shifts from the people in the street to the camera eye overlooking the scene. The resultant voyeurism takes on an uncanny aspect as the blandness of the scene contrasts with the near ‘magical’ control of the voice. The most surprising effect is the ease with which representation and description turn into phantasm through the determining power of language.
Bio John Smith
John Smith (UK, 1952) studied film at the Royal College of Art. Inspired by conceptual art and structural film, but also fascinated by the immersive power of narrative and the spoken word, he has developed a body of work that deftly subverts the boundaries between documentary, fiction, representation, and abstraction. Often rooted in everyday life, his meticulously crafted films, such as The Girl Chewing Gum (1976), Blight (1996), and The Black Tower (1987), playfully explore and expose the language of cinema. Smith’s work has been widely shown in independent cinemas, film festivals, and art galleries around the world and has been awarded man …
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- This film was #7 in the “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025voted by Lina Paulsen, Flavia Dima, Amarsanaa Battulga, Kevin B Lee, Julian Ross, Anouk De Clercq, Pedro Gonçalves Ribeiro, Catarina Mourao, Veton Nurkollari, Libertad Gills, Ben Nicholson, Anna Feistel, Koyo Yamashita, Gerald Weber, Roee Rosen, lau persijn, Christoffer Ode, Deborah Stratman, Tony Hill, Gunter Deller