OUR SHADOWS AT NOON

DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/SOUND 
Experimental Film, Written, Directed, and Soundscape by Lucia Dwyer

Our Shadows at Noon is a dialogue-free experimental film exploring themes of isolation, survival, and colonial oppression through a fusion of sound and movement. Set on the haunting terrain of Spike Island, an island off the coast of Cobh, Co.Cork. The Island is a now-attraction that was a 19th-century prison under British colonial rule. The film reconstructs the psychological landscape of its inmates using historical audio, abstract choreography, and haunting visuals.

Featuring actors Sorcha Crowley and Dorothee Karekezi, and shot by cinematographer Adam Barry-Murphy, the film draws from Spike Island’s violent past. Field recordings from the site are reworked into an immersive soundscape that reflects place and tells the story of the island’s predecessors. Manipulated Foley becomes narrative instruments.

Movement within the film is partially choreographed, emerging from visual and conceptual practices such as Tomaso Binga’s word alphabet. References to Sergei Parajanov’s The Color of Pomegranates are drawn on in the film’s structural and visual approach, where symbolic composition replaces linear storytelling.

The performers embody a shared yet fragmented sense of community through synchronized gestures and the presence of shadowing sounds, tussling between both solidarity and betrayal under pressure.

The film is a sensory representation of historical trauma and how systems of control fracture identity and community.