Director's Works
Olafur Arnalds and Talos, A Dawning Niall O'Brien
Niall O'Brien is a photographer and filmmaker from Dublin, Ireland. Born in Dublin, Ireland,
He studied fine art photography at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology.
He has exhibited his photography widely in a number of continents and has many awards to his name. With a background in documentary Niall’s feature and commercial work can retain this honest value while being able to explore other visual territories, keeping the work fresh and diverse.
His commercial work includes projects for Canon, Nike, Adidas, Levis, San Miguel, Persil, tv show Legends, RFU and an honest, powerful and sometimes stark look at what it means to be a member of London’s Met Police force.
Icelandic composer and producer Ólafur Arnalds reveals the music video for A Dawning, the title track from his collaborative album with the late Irish musician Talos – born Eoin French –, who passed away before the record’s completion. Undertaking the intimate process of finishing the album on behalf of them both, Arnalds carries what began as a shared creative venture into a powerful reflection on friendship, grief, and artistic exploration.
Directed by Níall O’Brien, and shot between West Cork and Reykjavík, and the surrounding areas, the video for A Dawning is a poetic, observational film built around a series of living tableaus that trace connection, presence, and quiet resilience – told through real people, Eoin's family and friends, real places, their memories, celebrations and the slow transformation that follows loss.
Discussing the video, O’Brien says, “I’ve always felt that the idea of life moving on was something I took from this. No matter how hard things get, we keep going. This film lets us observe the richness of life in its simplicity, and how that simplicity becomes epic when you really consider what it means to live. The glory of living is in the minutiae.”
