Opening in NYC for an exclusive two-week run at the Film Forum next Wednesday, April 27: THE ARBOR
Clio Barnard picked up the Best New Documentary Filmmaker award at last year’s Tribeca and additional awards at the BFI London Film Festival and Sheffield for her unique hybrid doc about the British playwright Andrea Dunbar and her daughter. I wrote about the film in my coverage of True/False for indieWIRE last month, saying:
The artifice is immediately apparent in the deeply affecting THE ARBOR – the film’s opening explains that actors lipsynch actual documentary recordings throughout the film. During the Q&A, Barnard explained that this innovative technique was inspired by a play that incorporated the verbatim interviews of residents of the titular housing project where her subjects, playwright Andrea Dunbar and her daughter Lorraine, lived. This practice, together with staged re-enactments from Dunbar’s writing, serves to distance the viewer and highlight rather than elide the manipulations that go into non-fiction filmmaking.
Note: Barnard will be present for a Q&A after the Friday, May 6 8PM screening. The 1987 comedy written by Andrea Dunbar, RITA, SUE AND BOB TOO!, will screen at 6PM on April 30-May 1 and May 7-8.
what (not) to doc 