Review and critique at least one short film production

‘The Arbor’ By Clio Barnard-Uk-2010

The documentary follows the life of British playwright Andrea Dunbar, focusing both on her life as a playwright on an estate in Bradford and the tough lives of her two daughters. The film merges both fictional and documentary elements and also uses a large amount of archival footage. The documentary for the most part doesn’t present Andrea in the best light as the main focus seems to be on the hard lives the kids (Lorraine and Lisa) had due to her behaviour. The Arbor is a very stylised documentary, most clearly seen through the use of verbatim performances. Instead of having the real people on screen, Barnard employs actors to lip-sync to the words spoken by the real people. What’s especially interesting is how the lip sync is slightly out of time with the recording which creates mass amounts of symbolism, with it in my eyes, representing how the actors are disconnected with the experiences the real people went through. I feel the performative style of documentary is used very well in presenting the estate as a complex place with many different and interesting lives living on it and Barnard’s choice to have some of the scenes that would have been shot in a home, shot outside on the estate, creates a really interesting blend of realism and expressionism. The story itself is very sad with the focus starting with Andreas tough life as a young woman on a poor council estate, who’s poor relationship with the people around her massively effected her, then shifting focus to Andreas daughter Lorraine who was victim to abuse and neglect as a child, followed by racism as an adult , which ultimately led to her becoming addicted to drugs and going in and out of prison. I feel the documentary attempts to spread many messages about British society through its presentation of the two stories, both in regard to the unjust class system and systemic racism. I feel u rarely see documentaries like this so seeing one done so well is immensely refreshing. I personally find the sound to be particularly interesting in this documentary. Barnard incorporates a vast amount of hyper real, diegetic sounds into each scene which I feel creates an overwhelming immersion for a viewer, making them feel even more uncomfortable as they already would be watching the story. These sounds are additionally accompanied with loud overwhelming noises as tension rises in the documentary, almost giving the viewer a slight insight into the emotion of the people on screen. Furthermore, the camera is used throughout the documentary to create alignment with some of the characters . When there is speaking, the camera mostly always stays in close up, creating an almost intimate feel between the viewer and the characters. Alongside this, A large number of tracking shots are used , creating a feeling that we , the viewer, are following their lives like we were on the estate with them. I would recommend this documentary to anyone who wishes to make their own documentaries as I feel it portrays just how far you can take the idea of a documentary and use your own creative ideas to tell the story how you want to tell it. I feel The Arbor pushes the boundary of what modern viewers expect a documentary to look like and beautifully depicts people whose lives had been nothing but easy.