"Andrea Dunbar wrote honestly and unflinchingly about her upbringing on the notorious Buttershaw Estate in Bradford and was described as ‘a genius straight from the slums.’ When she died tragically at the age of 29 in 1990, Lorraine was just ten years old.

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.

Also aged 29, Lorraine had become ostracised from her mother’s family and was in prison undergoing rehab. Re-introduced to her mother’s plays and letters, the film follows Lorraine’s personal journey as she reflects on her own life and begins to understand the struggles her mother faced.

Artist and director Clio Barnard also grew up in the Bradford region and in making the film, Barnard wanted to revisit the estate to see how it had changed in the two decades since Dunbar’s death.

Barnard recorded audio interviews with Lorraine Dunbar, other members of the Dunbar family and residents from the Buttershaw Estate over a period of two years. These interviews were edited to form an audio ‘screenplay.’ which forms the basis of the film as actors lip-synch to the voices of the interviewees."

                                                                           --Artangel

--Winner: Best New Documentary Filmmaker - Tribeca Film Festival

-- Winner: Sutherland Trophy - 54th BFI London Film Festival 2010

--Winner: Best Newcomer - London Film Festival Awards

-- Winner: Best Screenplay - Evening Standard Awards

--Winner: Innovation Award - Sheffield Documentary Film Festival

--Winner: Guardian first film award

--Clio Barnard and Tracy O’Riordan have been nominated for a BAFTA

-- Best Cinema Documentary: the Grierson Documentary Awards