Private Project

The Barking Mania

'The Barking Mania' employs a visual style characterised by sharp angles and dissonant imagery. It presents a narrative that defies conventional expectations, as anachronistic graphics collide with a seductive voice-over, creating a jarring yet mesmerising experience. Crafted entirely on a mobile phone screen, the animation breathes life into a historical account, its unconventional approach reflecting the peculiarity of the story it tells.

Taken from a medieval Irish manuscript from 1351, 'The Barking Mania' tells us about a phenomenon that has baffled generations. Once believed to be a collective hysterical disorder, contemporary insights suggest a different origin—a contagious illness akin to whooping cough.

Produced by Mairéad McClean during Ireland's Decade of Centenaries programme, this short film emerges as an exploration of belief, hysteria, and the ever-present threat of contagion. As the world continues to experience collective delusion in the present, this film serves as a timely reminder of the lasting impact of historical records to reveal stories that both captivate, confound and remind us of the cyclical nature of life on earth.

  • Mairéad McClean
    Director
    A Line Was Drawn, No More, The Nick of Time
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 40 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 31, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Ireland
  • Country of Filming:
    Ireland
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    digital/16mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • New York City Independant Film Festival
    New York
    United States
    June 6, 2024
    World
    Official Selection
  • IndiCork Independant Film Festival
    Cork
    Ireland
    October 6, 2024
    European
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Mairéad McClean

Mairead McClean has received a number of awards in the UK, Ireland, France and Russia. She was Decade of Centenary Artist in residence working with Beyond 22/ Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, based at Trinity Longroom Hub, Dublin in 22/23. She was commissioned by the Wapping Project, London in 2018, to make two films, Making Her Mark and A Line Was Drawn both shot in the Outer Hebrides She has also made work for The National Museums of Ireland (2015) and her video work No More (2013), exploring questions around the introduction of internment without trial in Northern Ireland in 1971, won the inaugural MAC International Art Prize in 2014. No More was acquired for the National Collection of Ireland at The Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2017 and Making Her Mark entered the Arts Council of Ireland Collection in 2021. Other notable recent exhibitions and screenings include, her first solo survey show at Belfast Exposed, Belfast, (2022)Centre Cultural Irelands, Paris (2022) Deutscher Künstlerbund e.V , Berlin, (2020) The BFI London Film Festival, Experimenta, (2019) The Now & After Exhibition, Video Art Festival and Exhibition, Fabrika, Moscow (2017) Whitechapel Gallery, London, (2016) The Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival: Faces of Conflict, Pittsburgh, USA, (2016), CCA Glasgow (2015). Keynote talks include; Performance Lecture at Trinity Longroom Hub, Dublin, June, 2022, The Whitechapel Symposium OBJECT: On Documentary as Art (2017), Art in Politics at The Irish Museum of Modern Art, (2018) and The Irish Literature in Exile symposium, Centre for Migration Studies, N. Ireland (2019). Her work has been included in 'Artist’s Moving Image in Britain since 1989', Edited by Erika Balsom, Lucy Reynolds and Sarah Perks, Yale University Press (2019) and Portraits of Irish Art in Practice by Prof Jennifer Keating (USA), Palgrave Macmillan (2022): A book on the art practice of; Ursula Burke, Mairéad McClean, Paula McFetridge & Rita Duffy.

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