“That day, the Panic attacked me. “
It's a prose about the feelings of panic attacks, a surreal animation in mixed medium. The film is inspired by interviewing the sufferers and their personal experiences.
Maureen is committed to portraying the indescribable and complex physical symptoms that are often overlooked when discussing mental health issues like anxiety or panic. Through collage and mixed media, the director seeks to depict an abstract and surreal world.
Director: Maureen Weng
Maureen Weng
Animator: Maureen Weng
Sound design: Maureen Weng
Music: Johanna Burnheart
Actress: Frances Keung, Hui Chou
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Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder where you regularly have sudden attacks of panic or fear...During a panic attack you get a rush of intense mental and physical symptoms. It can come on very quickly and for no apparent reason.
Symptoms include:
Most panic attacks last between 5 and 20 minutes. Some have been reported to last up to an hour.
Symptoms include:
- a racing heartbeat
- feeling faint
- sweating
- nausea
- chest pain
- shortness of breath
- trembling
- hot flushes
- chills
- shaky limbs
- a choking sensation
- dizziness
- numbness or pins and needles
- dry mouth
- a feeling of dread or a fear of dying
- a churning stomach
- a tingling in your fingers
- feeling like you're not connected to your body
Most panic attacks last between 5 and 20 minutes. Some have been reported to last up to an hour.
I suffered from severe panic attacks for five years, which was the first time I truly recognised the condition and realised just how much psychological issues can impact physical health. As I became more aware, I discovered that people around me—and even some well-known figures—were struggling with similar challenges. Many, like I once did, had no idea that their discomfort was caused by anxiety and autonomic nervous system disorders.
To gain a broader perspective, I conducted a questionnaire-based study, speaking to individuals who had experienced panic attacks. I asked them to describe how their episodes began and what they felt during them. Interestingly, everyone’s symptoms and experiences were different, and even when they shared similar symptoms, the way they described them varied considerably.
This gave me the sense that panic attacks are an abstract and stream-of-consciousness thing, and a starting point of building a surreal imagery in my animation.
They all felt like their bodies and souls were detached, and felt like they were dying. These became the core of my whole animation. I tried to write down my feelings, characterised Panic as a monster, and decided to use it as a voiceover to make the film more comprehensible.
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I love the analogue style and experiment mixed-media art, and especially commit to explore the combination of live-action and the virtual. I was inspired by mixed media animator Erik Winkowski, collage artist Jazz Grant, and be influenced a lot by Jonathan Hodgeson`s animation ‘Feeling my way’ and children`s book ‘The Princess of the Pea’ by Lauren Child. I integrated collage, stop frame and hand-drawing. I filmed the clips, exported and printed out as frames, played around with the images and experimented with different materials in collage, in order to construct a strong impact of this surreal and poetic visual storytelling.
