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Sonic Motifs, Structure and Identity in Steve McQueen’s "Hunger"

Presented in embryonic form at Cinesonika, the inaugural conference of innovative sound design in film and video at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver in 2010. This is the first and, to date, only published research paper addressing the use of sound and music in the debut feature film of British artist-turned-director Steve McQueen, “Hunger” (2008). The film, which received widespread critical acclaim for its uncompromising depiction of the events surrounding the 1981 Hunger Strikes in Northern Ireland’s Maze prison, employs a rich palette of sonic material that, although widely acknowledged by critics at the time as being as significant as the film's celebrated visual language, has remained largely under-discussed.

This paper rigorously examines the use of sound in “Hunger”, drawing particular attention to a series of identified recurrent sonic motifs whose development and (it is argued) musical treatment emerge as the principal means of establishing the visceral quality of the film’s material and framing its structural shape. By considering the content of these motifs in relation to conventions of ‘prison’ cinema as well as their possible sectarian associations (cf Moore 2003) the paper also discusses the role sound plays in articulating the central theme of ritual in “Hunger” and addressing the political connotations of its subject matter, particularly the film’s simultaneous affirmation and negation of the sectarian division of its characters.

Examining both the director’s conceptual ideas for the film’s soundtrack and his previous video installation work, the paper establishes a reference point for research on McQueen’s directorial work as well as in the broader field of sound design and moving image practice, especially in its inclusion of material from an interview (conducted by the author in 2011) with the film’s sound designer, Paul Davis.