BIO
Liberty Smith is a filmmaker based in Bristol, UK.
Studying ‘Media Practice’ at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts), led to Liberty winning an internship in the Development team at October Films, an independent production company, as part of her prize for her graduation film at the Imperial War Museum Student Film Festival.
Liberty continued working with leading independent production companies creating documentaries for prime time broadcast from 2010 - 2019, in London and Bristol, for a range of channels including BBC, Channel 4, SKY, Nat Geo - as well as short form commercial work for the NHS, Discover Northern Ireland, Lotus, Land Rover, Borne Charity, Hospice UK, before becoming a freelance filmmaker in 2020.
Since then, Liberty has been developing her own projects as an independent Director / filmmaker.
Her film, What Are You Looking At? (2022) was shown at film festivals nationally and internationally, notably at Hot Docs, DOC NYC, RIIFF, Ann Arbor and Hot Springs.
LIBERTY’S FILM PRACTICE
“I am a very curious person, about everything, especially people. I grew up in working class communities in London, Devon and Cornwall, and this has a big influence on my approach and my work.
It took a long time for the penny to drop that I could combine my love of image-making, which began in the last days of the school darkroom, with work that allowed me a strange sort of passport to be able to meet people and form their stories into films.
My practice is developing as I move ever further away from the documentary broadcast traditions I’ve worked in for a decade, though there are many skills and experiences that I carry forward. My favourite films are those that amplify small voices, and play creatively with genres and form. In my own practice I am researching and utilising an approach of inclusive filmmaking that aims to expand storytelling in this audio-visual medium.
Due to the juggle of family-life and caring responsibilities, I currently choose more time over more crew as I plan a budget and schedule, which allows me to be playful, flexible and experiment technically. It is an entirely different way of working than I’ve experienced before, and through these processes I allow the film to emerge and grow, perhaps more along the lines of being a ‘farmer-filmmaker’.”
STUDIO JAGO
Alongside her personal practice, Liberty runs Studio Jago, creating films with and for artists, arts organisations and public bodies and institutions that overlap with the arts. Find out more here: www.studiojago.co.uk (Website currently being updated)
