AHRC funded researcher Clio Barnard, from the University of Kent, has been shortlisted for two top awards at this month’s BFI London Film Festival for her first feature film, The Arbor.
Clio’s film The Arbor, which she both wrote and directed, is one of four films listed for the Best British Newcomer Award, while she has also been nominated as one of ten on a shortlist for the Sutherland Award for ‘most original and imaginative first feature screening at the festival’.
The recognition comes hard on the heels of Clio winning the Best New Documentary Filmmaker Award earlier this year at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
The Arbor, which has just gone on general release in UK cinemas and was described recently by the Guardian as ‘a superb new film by British artist Clio Barnard’, tells the story of playwright Andrea Dunbar, who died in 1990 at the age of 29, and her daughter Lorraine, who was ten years old at the time.
The Arbor revisits the Buttershaw Estate where Dunbar grew up, thirty years on from her original play, telling the powerful true story of the playwright and her daughter Lorraine.
The AHRC funding afforded Clio the time to record audio interviews from Lorraine and neighbours from the Bradford estate where Andrea was brought up, which were then edited to form the audio screenplay to which actors lip-synch. The footage is also intercut with extracts from Andrea’s first play.
The winners of the BFI LFF 2010 awards will be announced on 28 October. The Arbor actress Manjinder Virk and producer Tracy O’Riordan have also been shortlisted for the Best British Newcomer award.
Notes to Editors
Media Contact: Jake Gilmore, AHRC Communications Manager; T: 0797 099 4586,
E: j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk
The Arbor is presented by Artangel and UK Film Council in association with Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Arts Council England and More4. An Artangel Production. Producer Tracy O'Riordan. Directed by Clio Barnard
You can learn more about the film at:
http://www.artangel.org.uk//projects/2010/the_arbor/about_the_project/the_arbor
Reviews and articles have included:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/oct/21/the-arbor-film-review
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/oct/17/the-arbor-review
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?FID=136978
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11581747
Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £112 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.