Chico Peres Smith
Directing
Born: June 10, 1983
Birthplace: Lisbon, Portugal
Chico Peres Smith is a filmmaker and media artist whose work interrogates the fragile boundaries between analog memory and digital decay. His practice—spanning experimental documentaries, lyrical shorts, and community-engaged cinema—examines how technologies mediate identity, migration, and collective memory. Selected Works Tomorrow Doesn’t Exist (2024) A glitch-based interrogation of screen culture, structured as a triptych of decaying aspect ratios (9:16, 4:3, 16:9). The film’s handheld collage book becomes both subject and structural blueprint, questioning what survives when media erodes. Fogo Frio (2024) A haunting short film that traces the spectral edges of identity through contemplative imagery and destabilized soundscapes. Tummo (2024) A minimalist meditation on inner transformation, where abstract visuals and rhythmic editing evoke the heat of self-reinvention. VDO-POEM: Lisbon Revisited (2010) A hypnotic adaptation of Fernando Pessoa’s poetry, blending 16mm textures with digital artifacts to explore nostalgia’s fractures. L’Île da Saudade (2017) Edited a feature community-engaged documentary on oral histories of Montreal’s Portuguese diaspora, emphasizing the tactile preservation of migrant narratives. Dead Dicks (2019) As co-producer and editor, Smith helped shape this genre-bending horror feature into a Fantasia-premiered award winning exploration of mental health and sibling bonds. Collaborative Practice Smith’s work thrives in the liminal space between solitary creation and collective action. As co-organizer of Raindance Montreal, he builds bridges between experimental filmmakers and grassroots communities. His editorial collaborations (e.g., Dead Dicks) and participatory projects (e.g., Centre d’histoire de Montréal oral histories) reveal a commitment to cinema as both personal expression and social dialogue. Education & Influences A graduate of Lisbon Theatre & Film School, Smith’s methodology merges European avant-garde traditions with North American DIY ethos. His influences range from the media archaeology of Chris Marker to the community praxis of Agnès Varda, filtered through a post-internet lens. Current Focus Smith is developing new works that further explore: The materiality of digital decay (glitch art) Migrant narratives as sites of archival resistance Handmade cinema (Archival 16mm/8mm, collage books) as a counterpoint to algorithmic culture.
