Craig Smith

Nona

Dr. Eva Ray is 90 years old. She lives in a house by herself outside of Philadelphia. Born in former Yugoslavia, her family fled the Nazis and settled in New York. As a biochemist she worked for NASA and retired in her late 50's. She got divorced after 40 years of marriage and spent her time volunteering in local politics. After many years of independence and freedom, she now feels a deep sense of restlessness and finds herself at a significant turning point. Weaving through her memory and her present, she asks herself what she will do next in what she calls her "final chapter."

Exquisite Moving Corpse

The Surrealist, "Exquisite Corpse" was a French Café parlor game. "Exquisite Moving Corpse" is more of an artist chain letter. 60 artists participated over a two-year period, beginning in March 2020. Each invited artist made a one minute video in response to the last frame of the previous minute.

Viva Lost Elvis

Short by Craig Smith, re-editing footage from "Viva Las Vegas" (1964).

Viva Lost Elvis

Short by Craig Smith, re-editing footage from "Viva Las Vegas" (1964).

Begin

Begin is an experiment in non-specific narrative film. While preserving a large library of vintage Hollywood optical sound effects, the filmmaker became attracted to the sounds of slates, discussions, splices, and noise. These sounds were created, with much effort, to enhance specific narrative images. But these sounds can also tell a story as involving as the films they were created for. A silent picture edit was created from leftover narrative film footage. Like the sounds, the shots contain no specific narratives. The sounds and images were finally combined, forming relationships that set up and subvert narrative expectations. Begin is also a valentine to the craft of filmmaking.

Army, Cattle, Wagons (a Western)

Films about the American West tend to move quickly. In reality, the West moved at a much slower pace, and without snappy dialogue or musical underscore. This non-traditional narrative uses leftover second-unit footage from Arizona (1940), and vintage Hollywood sound effects.

AMTRAK

When I ride trains, I usually get hypnotized watching the rails running parallel to mine. Although they are following the same path, they weave, cross, disappear and reappear in seemingly random ways. When I saw these twenty-eight 8mm leaders spliced together, the result was very much like the movement of the rails. I recorded the sounds on a trip from Albany to Penn Station, mostly in the spaces between cars. I've edited and mixed that sound to fit the image. (C.S.)

14 Postcards

While editing the sound for Thom Andersen's Get Out of the Car, I realized that many of the images had different meanings for me than for him. So I took 14 scenes, made them all 30 seconds, and created my own non-specific narratives, though traditional sound design. (C.S.)

14 Postcards

While editing the sound for Thom Andersen's Get Out of the Car, I realized that many of the images had different meanings for me than for him. So I took 14 scenes, made them all 30 seconds, and created my own non-specific narratives, though traditional sound design. (C.S.)