Throwing Stones (Hotel Diaries #3)

As the camera looks out through a barred window and the clock strikes four in a Swiss city, the death of Yasser Arafat provides the starting point for a journey back in time.

“Throwing Stones is the third of his hotel room films. Through seemingly free, but in fact highly structured associations he guides the spectator (and in his case also listener) back to other hotel rooms and historical events. Bed, mirror, desk, the picture on the wall – that’s all he needs to reflect in a both personal and analytic way on the world post 9/11.” Dana Linssen, FIPRESCI Report, Oberhausen Festival 2005

“John Smith, who was invited to accompany his retrospective, gave a wonderful gift to his hosts: he made a film in his hotel room called Throwing Stones, which was shown for the first time to the public at the prize ceremony on Sunday evening. What starts out as a seemingly unspectacular exercise in filmmaking, develops by and by into an intelligent and brilliant meditation on the political status quo, without resorting to one single cut.” Johannes Binotto, Neue Zürcher Zeitung 17/11/04