Echo’s Bones Film Premiere

Film Premiere of a New Short Film Based in Fingal

Echo’s Bones is an ambitious two-year collaborative filmmaking project, led by artist Sarah Browne, with a group of autistic young people in north county Dublin. Commissioned by Fingal County Council under the Infrastructure 2018 – 2021 Public Art Programme. The project was developed through a series of online workshops facilitated by Sarah Fitzgibbon, Sarah Browne and Eleanor Walsh which involved creative writing, acting, composition and filmmaking. These workshops included creative tasks in response to invited guests and artwork prompts, and discussions about autistic representation in film, TV and online. Further in-person devising and rehearsing phases were facilitated by Sarah Browne and theatremaker Mark Ball.  Roles in the project were chosen by the group according to their interests (acting, writing, directing, music) and the film has been shaped by these choices. The film borrows its title from an unpublished short story by Samuel Beckett set in Fingal in the 1930s, around the time he was producing extensive notes on psychology and behavioural science.   Borrowing from a Beckett sensibility, autism is not the topic of the film but a way of sensing the world and speculating about a shared future. The film features an ensemble cast and eclectic suite of storytelling techniques.  It is a collective attempt at drafting the conditions of making and showing a film created by neurodiverse people on their own terms. The film explores how an autistic experience of the world as sensations, patterns and rhythms could change the kind of film we make and challenge the social contract of what is expected from cinema. The premiere screening of Echo’s Bones will take place at the Light House Cinema, Smithfield on Saturday 8th October from 11am – 1pm and will be followed by a Q & A session. A second screening is scheduled for Sunday 9th October from 11am - 1pm. The film is 26 minutes long and will play twice: the first time with captions, the second time with audio description.

 

Echo’s Bones was developed with Adam Greenan, Alex Kirwan, Andrew Darcy, Aoibhe Hoey, Ashwin Maliyakal, David Tansey, Eleanor McLoughlin, Eoin Hickey, Fionn Baker, George Weldon, L. Cronly, Noah Danson, Olivia NicLochlainn.

Director of Photography: Cathy Dunne

Composer: Alma Kelliher

Featuring original music by F!ONN and Eoin Hickey

Drama facilitators: Sarah Fitzgibbon, Eleanor Walsh, Mark Ball

Producer: Maggie Ryan

Executive producer: Aisling O’Brien