Private Project

Acts of Memory

SHORT SYNOPSIS
Acts of Memory explores cinematic and national history through the retelling of a story of an archive lost to war and its virtual reconstruction a century later. Balancing contemplation with wit and playfulness, the film bridges past, present, and future, bringing 16mm film into collision with AI technology.

LONGER SYNOPSIS
Presented in a three acts, filmmaker Mairéad McClean, conjures scenes from over a century ago between a worker in the Public Record Office in Dublin and a researcher as they go about their daily tasks. The film draws attention to the gestures of the actors, prompting a deeper reflection on the nature of memory while also questioning how archive material is preserved and how stories are told and reinterpreted over time. McClean weaves scenes from her own film history into this new work, subtly referencing her autobiographical films, drawing connections to key motifs in the depicted public history of Ireland.

In the film we see the delicate work of conserving salvaged burnt documents, interwoven with scenes of the filmmaker, camera operator, and actors crafting the film. The AI-generated voice, synthesised from millions of speech recordings narrating, offers insights into the filmmaking process as well as commenting on the authenticity of its own voice and what it means to be human.

Acts of Memory goes beyond its historical roots, stretching from the onset of the Irish Civil War in 1922, to become a cinematic ode bridging past, present, and future. Shot on 16mm film—a tangible link to the past—it invites viewers to reflect on how our understanding of history, memory, and cinematic expression is reshaped in moments of crisis.

The groundwork for Acts of Memory was laid during McClean's Artist in Residence with the Beyond 22 Project Team, as part of the Decade of Centenaries program at the Long Room Hub, Trinity College, Dublin. It was was project funded by the Arts Council of Ireland /an Chomhairle Ealaíon.

  • Mairéad McClean
    Director
    A Line Was Drawn, No More, Making Her Mark, Way Past, Movements Recollected, For the Record
  • Alberto Bona
    Key Cast
    "O'Toole"
  • Lysann Brade
    Key Cast
    "Sybil Fitzpatrick"
  • James Holecombe
    Cinematography
  • Aerpo Films
    Cinematography
  • Mairead McClean
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Other
  • Genres:
    poetic, Experimental, non fiction
  • Runtime:
    28 minutes 20 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 1, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    40,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Ireland
  • Country of Filming:
    Ireland, United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    16mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Un Festival C'est Trop Court
    Nice
    France
    October 7, 2025
    Best Experimental Film, Special Mention Creative Documentary
  • Kinoskop - Analog Experimental Film Festival- Curators Award
    Museum of Yugoslav Film Archive
    Serbia
    December 11, 2024
    World
    Official Selection- Curators Award
  • Rencontres Internationales Sciences & Cinéma (RISC)
    Marseille
    France
    December 14, 2024
    European
    Official selection
Director Biography - Mairéad McClean

Born in Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland, Mairéad McClean is a visual artist working across film, video, sound, and photography. Her practice incorporates found footage, historical and family archives, filmed performances, and televisual media to explore memory and the mechanisms behind how and why we remember.

Her works often depict ordinary people navigating systems of control, challenging authority, or improvising their actions. Over a 25-year career, she has received numerous accolades, including the inaugural MAC International Art Prize in 2014 for her video 'No More' (2013), which examines the introduction of internment without trial in Northern Ireland.

Recent highlights include her Decade of Centenaries Artist Residency at Trinity College Dublin’s Long Room Hub (2022–23) and a multi-media survey exhibition at Belfast Exposed Gallery (2022–23). In 2018, she was commissioned by The Wapping Project, London, to create works on borders and boundaries, resulting in 'A Line Was Drawn' (premiered at Experimenta, BFI, London Film Festival 2019) and 'Making Her Mark'.

McClean’s work has been featured in exhibitions and screenings worldwide, including, Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, 2025, The Museum of Yugoslavia Film Archive, (2024), The Irish Cultural Institute, Paris ( 2022) The Now & After Video Art Festival, Moscow (2017), Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival, Pittsburgh, USA (2016), CCA Glasgow (2015), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2020). Her video No More is part of The National Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, with additional works held by The Irish Film Institute Archive, The Arts Councils of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and private collections globally.

Her work is profiled in Artist’s Moving Image in Britain Since 1989 (Yale University Press, 2019) and Portraits of Practice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).

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Director Statement

Acts of Memory is, at its core, an origins story—about the loss and re-emergence of an archive, and the tools that make that return possible. The film responds to the destruction of Ireland’s Public Record Office in 1922 and the ongoing work of reconstruction through the Virtual Record Treasury.

The voice at the centre of the film is often misunderstood. The script was written entirely by me. In 2022, before AI language tools were widely accessible, I used an AI-generated voice not to author the text, but to reflect it back—to hear my own words as if from outside myself. This process became a form of feedback loop: writing, listening, reworking. The voice is not a replacement for authorship, but a device for testing it.

Film and often projected as a 16mm print, the work brings analogue and digital processes into contact. The mechanical trace of film sits alongside a synthetic voice, creating a tension between material memory and generated sound. This interplay is central to the work: an exploration of how older and newer technologies intersect in the act of remembering.

Acts of Memory asks how we give voice to what has been lost—and how, through a combination of tools, past and present might begin again.

NB: Whenever possible, Acts of Memory is shown on 16mm, where the AI voice is carried on the optical soundtrack—visible as a trace, a waveform held in the strip of film. With each projection, that voice begins to shift: touched by the projector’s teeth, catching dust, hair, and particles from the room. What starts as a synthetic, repeatable voice becomes something fragile and changeable—marked by time and encounter. The act of remembering continues in the body of the film itself.