How we remember our lives, and how others remember us, are always acts conducted through a lens (be it a camera, or our own way of viewing the world). Our own lens shapes our recollections, our memory; and the same event can be remembered and retold in a vast number of ways—but what if we could see the same event through other people’s lenses?
By Keeva Stratton.
In Stories We Tell, actress and director Sarah Polley attempts to tell a story about her mother and her own life. She chooses to tell it through interviewing a host of family, friends and those close to her mother (who is not here to tell her own story).
Sarah, it would seem, is surrounded by professional storytellers. Her father was a writer and an actor in his younger years, her mother an actress, and many of her and her mother’s friends exist in that world; giving them a rare consciousness about the process of storytelling. Their ability to articulate their thoughts, memories and feelings, is presented through eloquent streams of dialogue.
As we are given the differing views of the events (which are themselves a great story), it raises questions of truth in memory—with so many varying accounts, how can we ever really know what the truth was?
Of course we can’t, which is a bold message for a documentary to make. And while for the most part we are led to feel as though we are getting a range of perspectives on the story, Polley herself interjects through her directing; making it clear that this is her editing of the narrative, and that this is in fact her story.
She is ultimately in control of the narrative, and her story about her mum is told through her selection of the interviews with each of the players and through the timing and weight she gives to some views over others.
It’s a lovely example of how film can capture a person’s innermost thoughts. Polley clearly is working her way through her own feelings about the course of events, and she is using her favoured medium to do it. By sharing her work, she is sharing her questions. It’s beautifully done.
Stories We Tell is a very personal and endearing documentary from a clearly talented director. It’s easily Polley’s best work to date, and will be screening as part of Sydney Film Festival. For details, visit www.sff.org.au.
Directed by: Sarah Polley
Runtime: 108mins
Release Date: Screening at SFF
Reviewer rating: 4/5
Directed by: Sarah Polley
Runtime: 108mins
Release Date: Screening at SFF
Reviewer rating: 4/5
