Speaking for Herself: Andrea Dunbar and Bradford on Film

TY - JOUR

T1 - Speaking for Herself

T2 - Andrea Dunbar and Bradford on Film

AU - Peirse, Alison

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - In October 2010, the radio broadcaster Philip Dodd interviewed Clio Barnard about her new documentary, The Arbor (2010), based on the life of the late playwright Andrea Dunbar. As part of the film-making process, Barnard recorded audio interviews with Dunbar’s family then hired professional actors to lip-synch the responses in the film. Dodd had a major problem with this method: The Arbor is rooted in the lives of working-class Northern women, yet for Dodd, ‘they’re not good enough to be seen’. In a passionate defence, Barnard argued ‘I wanted people to speak for themselves’. This article examines Barnard’s film in conjunction with Rita, Sue and Bob Too!, for which Dunbar wrote the screenplay. A paradox is considered, where the ‘real’ and ‘authentic’ female voices of Dunbar, her family and neighbours are then mediated by cinematic form; this is placed within a wider argument about how issues around realism and representation in documentary and fiction film contribute to our understanding of the North in popular culture. The analysis then situates this thinking in terms of the representation of Northern writers and spaces, considering how the site-specific locations of writers affect the kind of cultural texts that they are able to produce.

AB - In October 2010, the radio broadcaster Philip Dodd interviewed Clio Barnard about her new documentary, The Arbor (2010), based on the life of the late playwright Andrea Dunbar. As part of the film-making process, Barnard recorded audio interviews with Dunbar’s family then hired professional actors to lip-synch the responses in the film. Dodd had a major problem with this method: The Arbor is rooted in the lives of working-class Northern women, yet for Dodd, ‘they’re not good enough to be seen’. In a passionate defence, Barnard argued ‘I wanted people to speak for themselves’. This article examines Barnard’s film in conjunction with Rita, Sue and Bob Too!, for which Dunbar wrote the screenplay. A paradox is considered, where the ‘real’ and ‘authentic’ female voices of Dunbar, her family and neighbours are then mediated by cinematic form; this is placed within a wider argument about how issues around realism and representation in documentary and fiction film contribute to our understanding of the North in popular culture. The analysis then situates this thinking in terms of the representation of Northern writers and spaces, considering how the site-specific locations of writers affect the kind of cultural texts that they are able to produce.

KW - Andrea Dunbar

KW - Bradford

KW - documentary

KW - Rita, Sue and Bob Too!

KW - social realism

KW - The Arbor

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84958046178&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/14797585.2015.1134060

DO - 10.1080/14797585.2015.1134060

M3 - Article

SN - 1479-7585

VL - 20

SP - 60

EP - 72

JO - Journal for Cultural Research

JF - Journal for Cultural Research

IS - 1

ER -