Christopher Ian Smith is a writer, director and producer living in London.

In his early career, he was a member of the audiovisual collective Addictive TV, producing audiovisual art, experimental films, and the ITV1 music series Mixmasters. Addictive TV were voted No.1 VJs in the world by DJMag, and performed at events and venues including: Le Centre Pompidou, The ICA, Glastonbury Festival and Mutek.

For a period he worked in the digital space as a business leader and creative – delivering award-winning applications, installations and campaigns for brands such as O2, Guinness, PlayStation and Samsung. In partnership with The Barbican, East End Film Festival and Cork Film Festival, he founded and programmed EMERGE, a symposium about the future of filmmaking.

Since 2012 he has been primarily focused on moving image. His work spans experimental, documentary and fiction – exploring our interaction with folklore, landscape, architecture and technology through uncanny narratives. Chris has exhibited at film, photography and art festivals globally.

In 2018 his feature documentary, New Town Utopia (narrated by Jim Broadbent) was released in cinemas. It received four and five-star reviews from critics in The Guardian, The Times and more, with a 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It played at festivals around the world.

New Town Utopia was a cross-platform work comprising a book and video art installation. The publication featured poetry, photography and writing by Jonathan Meades, Owen Hatherley and Gillian Darley. The video installation exhibited at the Sharjah Biennale (Beirut) and Format Photography Festival.

His recent horror short film Unreel (2022) has been selected for the Oscar-qualifying LA Shorts Fest, Popcorn Nights and Frightfest. Projects in development include the dystopian horror-thriller Zero Hours and the feature documentary where the green man goes.

Chris has also created and directed commercials, branded content, documentary and VR for brands including the BBC, Disney, Dyson, Jil Sander, L’Oreal, TAG Heuer and UbiSoft.