Stories We Tell
View Trailer2011, 108 minutes, color, Canada, Spotlight
Actor/director Sarah Polley previously attended the Sundance Film Festival as a filmmaker with her shorts Don’t Think Twice and I Shout Love and her first feature film, 2007’s Away From Her. Her latest is a riveting and joyful personal documentary that has screened at the Venice, Telluride, and Toronto film festivals.
Polley turns the camera on her own family and creates an essay/love letter to her actor parents: Diane, who passed away when she was 11, and Michael. In the process, she investigates a mystery she initially wasn’t even sure existed. When Polley pulls back the layers of the stories told by her siblings and close family friends, differing perceptions and buried secrets rise to the surface—with some very surprising revelations.
In pursuit of truth through art, Polley creates and recreates the past by using home movies and original footage, enfolding it in a rich, spellbinding, and emotionally affecting narrative. Five years in the making, Stories We Tell is about the stories told within Polley’s own family, but also the ones we all tell—and the way everybody’s truth is the truth. - K. Y.
Polley turns the camera on her own family and creates an essay/love letter to her actor parents: Diane, who passed away when she was 11, and Michael. In the process, she investigates a mystery she initially wasn’t even sure existed. When Polley pulls back the layers of the stories told by her siblings and close family friends, differing perceptions and buried secrets rise to the surface—with some very surprising revelations.
In pursuit of truth through art, Polley creates and recreates the past by using home movies and original footage, enfolding it in a rich, spellbinding, and emotionally affecting narrative. Five years in the making, Stories We Tell is about the stories told within Polley’s own family, but also the ones we all tell—and the way everybody’s truth is the truth. - K. Y.
About the Director
Writer/director Sarah Polley’s dramatic features include Away From Her, which screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay, and won the 2008 Genie Award for best motion picture and achievement in direction; and Take This Waltz, starring Seth Rogen, Michelle Williams, and Sarah Silverman. Stories We Tell is her third feature film as director.
Cast and Credits
Director: Sarah Polley
Screenwriter: Sarah Polley
Producer: Anita Lee
Cinematographer: Iris Ng
Editor: Mike Munn
Contact: Stephanie Northen / Roadside Attractions / stephanien@roadsideattractions.com / (323) 882-8490
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