Slow Glass - John Smith

So delighted to have the support of legendary filmmaker John Smith to show “SLOW GLASS” in THE REVELATOR . 1pm Friday 24th Sept. Tickets FREE but BOOKING ESSENTIAL.

Slow Glass 16mm 40mins 1988-1991 by John Smith.

”A mesmerizing experimental documentary that presents a discussion of the manufacture of glass as a way to explore memory and transformation. Filled with Smith’s signature witty wordplay and elegant visual punning, Slow Glass also quietly ponders weightier issues of urban transformation and the value placed on craftsmanship.” - Alexander Stewart, notes for screening at Pioneer Works, New York 2015

The film begins with a shout in the street and a smashed pane, and ends with a bricked-up window. Between these literal images of opening and closing, ‘Slow Glass’ spins immaculately shot puns and paradoxes that play on reflection and speculation – words that refer both to acts of seeing and of the mind. Glass is the key, as a narrator’s running commentary sketches the glassmaker’s art, splicing a history lesson with a quasi-autobiography….The cutting of glass is matched to the editing of film, and the camera’s lens to the surface, which it captures. Through the pub-talk and the downing of glasses, other themes emerge; among them is the constancy of change, as the face of London alters and the past becomes present showing streets and shops changing over time and season.”Slow Glass’ suggests that the living past has been turned into capitalized ‘Heritage’, that the noble craftsman only survives as a museum piece.” — A.L. Rees, London Film-Makers’ Co-op catalogue, 1993 (abridged)