This paper argues that an Arts-Based Research (ABR) methodology, drawing on the Ethnofiction work of filmmaker Jean Rouch, can facilitate new ways of researching mathematics, science and education more generally by: (i) making past learning experiences more accessible and (ii) considering the affective engagement of the audience as interrogator of research to open up myriad understandings of research data. Here, dissemination and impact are positioned as 'inside' the research process, rather than 'informed by' or directed by the outcome of research. The paper discusses the research film "Performatics: Performing stories of mathematical identity through filmed drama Performatics" https://vimeo.com/147449932, and a scene "which shows" Claire (a postgraduate student studying quantitative analysis), in a scene entitled 'Sum Anxiety', as she dramatizes an experience from the secondary school mathematics classroom. A moment, which Claire expresses as pivotal in negatively affecting her as a mathematics learner; an experience still viscerally felt.