Stories We Tell (Canada) | Click here to watch
(108 min; 2012; English)
Director: Sarah Polley
Multiple award winner including EDA Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, Alliance of Women Film Journalists 2013; AFCA Award for Best Documentary, Australian Film Critics Association Awards 2013; DGC Team Award –Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary, Directors Guild of Canada 2013; ICS Award for Best Documentary, International Cinephile Society Awards 2014; among others
In this inspired, genre-twisting new film, Oscar nominated writer/director Sarah Polley discovers that the truth depends on who's telling it. Polley is both filmmaker and detective as she investigates the secrets kept by a family of storytellers. She playfully interviews and interrogates a cast of characters of varying reliability, eliciting refreshingly candid, yet mostly contradictory, answers to the same questions. As each relates their version of the family mythology, present-day recollections shift into nostalgia-tinged glimpses of their mother, who departed too soon, leaving a trail of unanswered questions. Polley unravels the paradoxes to reveal the essence of family: always complicated, warmly messy and fiercely loving. Stories We Tell explores the elusive nature of truth and memory, but at its core is a deeply personal film about how our narratives shape and define us as individuals and families, all interconnecting to paint a profound, funny and poignant picture of the larger human story.
