Tadhg O'Sullivan

Directing

Tadhg O'Sullivan

Tadhg O'Sullivan is a film-maker, editor, sound designer and sound recordist based in Carlow, Ireland. He is best known for his atmospheric documentaries such as To The Moon, The Great Wall and Yximalloo.

Known For

MagilliganMagilligan · 2026
Magilligan
2026
MovieDocumentary
Between the all-too-familiar prison walls and his mother's house, Ryan grapples with himself, eventually finding an escape with the sheep in the verdant fields of Northern Ireland.
A Want in HerA Want in Her · 2025
A Want in Her
★ 7.52025
MovieDocumentary
When her mother Nuala goes missing somewhere in Ireland, artist Myrid Carten returns from London to find her. Her search takes her into a feuding family, a contested house; and a history that threatens to take everyone down, including herself.
Making DustMaking Dust · 2023
Making Dust
2023
MovieDocumentary
Making Dust is an essay film, a portrait of the demolition of Ireland's second largest Catholic Church, the Church of the Annunciation in Finglas West, Dublin. Understanding this moment as a 'rupture', the film maps an essay by architectural historian Ellen Rowley on to documentation of the building's dismantling. Featuring oral interviews recorded at the site of the demolition and in a nearby hairdressers, the film invites viewers to pause and reflect on this ending alongside the community of the building. The film is informed by Ultimology, and invites its audience to think about the life cycles of buildings and materials, how we mourn, what is sacred, how we gather, what we value and issues of sustainability in architecture.
The SwallowThe Swallow · 2024
The Swallow
2024
MovieDrama
In a small house, on the Irish coast, a woman writes a letter to an unknown correspondent. She ponders the evanescence of memory and art. Her home brims with traces of life—faded photographs, scattered artworks, some unfinished. All is shrouded by the constant murmur of the sea: that vast canvas of everything that was and will be.
YximallooYximalloo · 2014
Yximalloo
2014
MovieDocumentary
Naofumi Yximalloo Ishimaru is an obscure cult musician who has spent most of his 57 years on the fringes of music and society. Perennially uncertain of what he wants, Naofumi is constantly moving - drawing people to him before pushing them away and setting out alone once more.
The Way We PlayedThe Way We Played · 2006
The Way We Played
2006
MovieDrama
On the eve of war in Bosnia, two boys go looking for treasure in an abandoned hill fort oblivious to the encroaching danger. Instead of gold they find a gun and overnight both their lives are changed forever.
FathomFathom · 2013
Fathom
2013
Movie
a non-narrative, meditative film on isolation and thinking framed by the Fastnet Lighthouse off the South West coast of Ireland.
The Great WallThe Great Wall · 2015
The Great Wall
★ 4.52015
MovieDocumentary
‘The Great Wall has been completed at its most southerly point.’ So begins Kafka’s short story ‘At the Building of the Great Wall of China’, and so, at Europe’s heavily militarised south-eastern frontier, begins this film. In the shadow of its own narratives of freedom, Europe has been quietly building its own great wall. Like its famous Chinese precursor, this wall has been piecemeal in construction, diverse in form and dubious in utility. Gradually cohering across the continent, this system of enclosure and exclusion is urged upon a populace seemingly willing to accept its necessity and to contribute to its building.

Filmography

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Making DustMaking Dust · 2023
Making Dust
2023
MovieDocumentary
Making Dust is an essay film, a portrait of the demolition of Ireland's second largest Catholic Church, the Church of the Annunciation in Finglas West, Dublin. Understanding this moment as a 'rupture', the film maps an essay by architectural historian Ellen Rowley on to documentation of the building's dismantling. Featuring oral interviews recorded at the site of the demolition and in a nearby hairdressers, the film invites viewers to pause and reflect on this ending alongside the community of the building. The film is informed by Ultimology, and invites its audience to think about the life cycles of buildings and materials, how we mourn, what is sacred, how we gather, what we value and issues of sustainability in architecture.

Director of Photography