This article looks at the first feature-length film work of artist Clio Barnard, The Arbor, which depicts the life of British playwright Andea Dunbar. Barnard uses real audio recordings of interviews with Dunbar's friends and family, but films actors lip-synching to these interviews for unsettling effect. This ventriloquism is juxtaposed with archival footage of Dunbar herself and a live performance of one of her plays, creating an unconventional documentary.