[2023] I was asked by Aidan O’Rourke to create a film in response to an immersive sound installation he was creating, inspired by Irish mythology and its links to contemporary UFO sightings. Aidan says: ‘The catalyst was a New York Times headline: ‘They Are Not Alone: U.F.O. Reports Surged in the Pandemic’. Many of us looked to the sky in new ways during lockdown — we were all after answers, after all… There’s something older here, too — a supernatural race called Tuatha De Dannan supposedly came to Ireland in ‘flying ships’ surrounded by ‘dark clouds’. Their ‘great god’, Dagda, had an ability to manipulate time by shifting the movement of the sun — to ‘make the sun stand still’.
I spent months filming the sky, and this meditation on myth and memory is the result.
A film by Becky Manson, Aidan O’Rourke, and Barry Lynn
Directed, filmed & edited by Becky Manson
Produced by Dumbworld for Our Place in Space
Original music by Aidan O’Rourke
Music produced by Barry Lynn and Aidan O’Rourke
Music mixed by Barry Lynn
Sound mix by Jenny Ek