Details from IMDB:
Stories We Tell
- A film that excavates layers of myth and memory to find the elusive truth at the core of a family of storytellers.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars:
- Michael Polley
John Buchan
Mark Polley
Initial Thoughts:
As you know I’ve been on a Canadian documentary kick as of late. So with the CBC Gem app (which I’m enjoying) it’s easy to look throught lots of Canadian films, I look at ratings/reviews and decide what I want. Last night I found and interesting film by Sarah Poley and decided to give it a try. She is an Oscar winning director after all!
Main Points:
I’m not sure how I missed this back then but I was glad to have watched this now. Sarah Poley is an excellent dircector and she did something here that really surprised me. She made a documentary about her mother and father and it not only turned into the revlation of a huge family secret (or two) it also tricked/surprised me! I’ve never seen for a documentary to pretend that footage is real only to find out a lot (maybe all) for the flashback scenes are actors! I supposed I should have seen it as a big focus here is how unreliable memory can be, how one person can remember events through their own perscpetive and that could be much different that how you or I would recall the same events.
While I’m not concered with spoilers, movie came out 16 years ago, I will say I will spoil it more if you keep reading (more out of old habits than anything else). The big secret she discovers is that Sarah’s mom had an affair and her real biological dad is someone else, a theatre director and movie producer named Harry Gulkin. If all that wasn’t interesting enough she also co-wrote the film with her dad and he does narration for the flim. I think it took a huge amount of courage for her to a documentary about herself and her whole family, essential airing all of her family secrets and being very honest and vulnerable (yes I know to a point). The movies deals a lot with what it’s like to lose a parent, a wife and what it means to be happy. The father, Micheal Polley, was an actor and writer himself and as he says his wife would have been thrilled to see him writing again. It was a beautifuil tribute to Sarah’s mother Diane, and a wonderful exploration of what it meant to her discovering she blood father later in life, along with finally knowing that somehow a family joke about her having a different father, started when she was 13, was somehow true. It also gets really serious about grief and regret and has wonderfully touching, and yes rather sad, moments.
Final Thoughts:
A wonderful film, though I’d say don’t watch it when you’re high which I didn’t thankfully, that really pulls on your heartstrings in a good way. I didn’t tear up but it really made me think about life, family and truth, a sign of what a great documentary can do. So glad I watched this, I give it a very strong 9 out of 10, Sarah Poley is incredible and really takes you down a wonderful genre-bending journey. Mature subject matter would make me say ages 14+, I’m glad I’ve got to experience all this wonderful Canadian filmakers, I’m looking forward to what comes next.