Chico Peres Smith
Directing
Biography
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.
Known For
After Becca receives a distressing call from her suicidal brother Richie, she rushes over to his apartment and finds him alive and well - surrounded by copies of his own dead body.
Dead Dicks
An experimental exploration of modern life’s emptiness, examining how the spectacle, the death of community, and the rise of individualism have reshaped our world.
Tomorrow Doesn't Exist
Fogo Frio is a contemplative meditation on Portuguese cinema and identity, framed by critic Justine Peres Smith’s haunting narration. Two landscapes—a Portuguese family home and Quebec’s Laurentian wilderness—merge in a dreamlike exploration of memory and artistic belonging. At its center, Lloyd burns letters in a fire, perhaps including Justine’s own words ("Dear Lloyd... Yours truly, Justine"). Their ambiguous bond mirrors the film’s tension between tradition and reinvention. Born from the director’s resistance to conventional "Portuguese cinema," Fogo Frio becomes a personal reckoning—a collaborative, improvisational work that challenges the solitary auteur myth. Through fire, silence, and stark beauty, it asks: How do we make art on our own terms?
FOGO FRIO
Noah, an infamous internet troll, who at the behest of their idol Jimmy Beast, sets off on a mission to unalive the politician who banned the social media app in which they derive all of their self-worth and identity.
HUMAN ERROR
Tummo is a meditative short film that immerses the viewer in the ancient Tibetan Buddhist practice of inner fire meditation. Through abstract visuals and rhythmic breathing sounds, the film evokes the transformative power of Tummo—a technique that harnesses breath and mental focus to generate profound internal heat and heightened awareness. Stripped of narrative, the film unfolds as a sensory journey, with undulating shapes and vibrant colors acting as metaphors for the rising "inner flame." The hypnotic interplay of light, sound, and movement invites the audience into a trance-like state, mirroring the meditative experience itself. Tummo is not just a film to watch but an experience to surrender to—a momentary escape from distraction into the depths of stillness and inner energy. It is an artistic exploration of the unseen fire within, offering a space for reflection, presence, and transcendence.