Sean James Garland

SJG is a filmmaker from Dublin, Ireland. As well as writing and directing he also often DP’s, camera operates and edits but particularly loves to collaborate with other DP’s, camera operators and editors.

Garland set assisted on Jim Sheridan's IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER and Neil Jordan's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE before writing & directing his first short, THE MAJESTY OF THE HAUNT, shot on Super 16mm at legendary film location Luggala in County Wicklow. It went on to screen at the Galway Film Fleadh in 1997.

More films shorts followed, independent features, documentaries, music promos and commercials/corporates.

His thriller-at-sea, THE WHEELHOUSE made the Turner Classic Movies Short Film Commendable List in 2007 and his neo-Western documentary NOKOTA HEART won Best Documentary Feature at the White Sands International Film Festival in New Mexico in 2011 as well as Best Cinematography at the Arizona International Film Festival the following year.

In 2015 he worked with Francis Ford Coppola's Sound Designer Jim McKee at American Zoetrope in San Francisco on folk horror feature BANSHEE BLACKTOP; AN IRISH GHOST STORY (2016) and it’s BBC’s Ghost Story for Christmas-inspired Director’s Cut AN INCIDENT ON INISHDUBH (2020).

His work has seen a number of locations over the years; London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Mexico, North Dakota, but in 2016 he returned to his home turf of Dublin to write, shoot & direct the renowned LOVE GROWS OUT OF THIN AIR music promo for electronic composer (and former Tangerine Dream member) Ulrich Schnauss.

Outside of his own projects there has been commissions from Tate Modern, Sony Music, Microsoft, American Zoetrope, Clive Christian, The London Guildhall School of Music & Drama, The Players Tribune, Brewin Dolphin and many others.

Recently his two film shorts THE COOT (2021) and TODAY’S THE DAY (2020) were screened at the Portobello Film Festival 2022 in London.

He’s currently developing a number of projects including OWL, a TV series starring Cherokee actor and Oscar Winner Wes Studi and a new feature, ALLOTMENT (2025), a London-set mystery drama.

His Desert Island 10 are...

Jaws (1975) Steven Spielberg

Heat (1995) Michael Mann

The Innocents (1961) Jack Clayton

Far From The Madding Crowd (1967) John Schlesinger

Sex & Lucia (1991) Julio Medem

An American Werewolf in London (1981) John Landis

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Steven Spielberg

Annie Hall (1977) Woody Allen

Apocalypse Now (1979) Francis Ford Coppola

The Thin Red Line (1998), Terrence Malick

Long Island Bridie Pictures logo and company is a copyright of Sean James Garland.