About Echo’s Bones

Echo’s Bones takes its title from an unpublished short story by Samuel Beckett set in Fingal in the 1930s, originally intended to be part of the collection 'More Pricks Than Kicks'. Made by artist Sarah Browne with a group of autistic young people in north county Dublin, Ireland, the film is situated in the same geography of the stories — largely along the north Dublin coast, against the backdrop of a Victorian asylum. The film was developed over two years, initially through a series of online workshops, involving creative writing, acting, composition and filmmaking, and in-depth discussions about autistic representation in film, TV and online. Songs written and produced by the young people largely form the emotional spine of the film, as unexpectedly, it turned into something like a musical. Borrowing from a Beckett sensibility, autism is not the subject of the film, but a way of sensing the world, questioning ways of being together, and speculating about a shared future.

Echo’s Bones was commissioned by Fingal County Council under the Infrastructure 2017 – 2021 Public Art Programme.