Regression (1999) John Smith

A portrait of the artist as a not so young man. The filmmaker attempts to enter the digital age by making a new video version of his 1978 film 7P. John Smith is not afraid of time. His films continuously show of his patience in setting up a visual pun, filming certain angles over several days or months in order to develop our sense of place and flux. Regression makes time a focus of his humour. As he recreates a film he made twentyone years earlier, he tapes each of the twelve days of Christmas, getting progressively younger as he replays the chorus of the accompanying song. In a sense, it is this youthful humour mixed with the political wisdom of age and an unflagging patience that makes John Smiths films unique they are not quick jokes, but elaborate latticeworks of humour. Chris Kennedy, programme notes for screening at Pleasure Dome, Toronto 2001.