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Award-winning UEL film-maker receives Tate Britain and Curzon Soho showcase

Tuesday 30 September 2008

The work of award-winning artist, film-maker and University of East London (UEL) Professor John Smith is set to be showcased at Tate Britain and Curzon Soho cinema this October.

Hotel Diaries, John’s latest feature film, will be screened at the Curzon Soho on Sunday October 5 at 2pm, followed by a Q&A with the director. A selection of his earlier acclaimed short films, including The Girl Chewing Gum (1976), The Black Tower (1985-7), Om (1986), and The Waste Land (1999) will be screened at the same cinema on Monday 6 October.

Hotel Diaries is a politically engaged, perfectly observed and often very funny series of video recordings made in hotel rooms across the world over a period of six years. Each recording relates John’s personal experiences and reflections to the current conflicts in the Middle East.

On Saturday October 18, a selection of videos from the Hotel Diaries series will be screened at Tate Britain in the Clore Auditorium. The free screening will take place at 2pm, and will be followed by a discussion with John and Tate Britain curator Andrew Wilson.

John Smith has made more than 40 film, video and installation works since 1972. Works in the Hotel Diaries series (which, until completion of the final installment, were screened as individual short films) have been awarded prizes including Best International Short Film at the Cork International Film Festival (2005), the Grand Prix at the Split Festival of New Film (2007) and the Grand Prix (ex aequo) at the Lucca Film Festival (2007).

Hotel Diaries has already been shown at the Pompidou Centre in Paris and featured as part of Watershed Media Centre’s May ’68 – When Culture Was Radicalised season in Bristol. For further details, contact madeleine@watershed.co.uk

UEL’s School of Architecture and the Visual Arts has established a national and international reputation for excellence and creativity. Alongside John, staff and visiting professors include Fae Brauer, Jane Harris, David Montgomery, Michael O’Pray, Richard Wilson, Rodrigo Perez de Arce Antoncic, and Turner-prize-winning artists Grenville Davey and Grayson Perry.

For further information, visit www.uel.ac.uk/ava.

For further details and photos contact Hana Esselink, Press Officer, University of East London, 020 8223 2194 / 07595 056 245

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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