Stories We Tell (2012)
Country: CAN
Technical: col/bw 108m
Director: Sarah Polley
Cast: Michael Polley, John Buchan, Joanna Polley, Sarah Polley, Harry Gulkin
Synopsis:
The Canadian director uses interviews within her family circle, as well as home movie and archive footage, to piece together the truth about her own history.
Review:
For all its earth-shattering revelation as to her paternity, Polley's documentary seems overstretched. It grew out of the affected parties' need to set down a personalised version of events, or rather in resistance to any one version gaining currency. The 'Rashomon effect' is further enhanced by the fact that everyone, film included, seems to gravitate around the central, absent figure of the mother herself, whose oft repeated image is for all that powerless to testify in any meaningful way, except as some kind of life force. The ability of the plentiful home movie footage to illustrate events where required is at times arresting.
Country: CAN
Technical: col/bw 108m
Director: Sarah Polley
Cast: Michael Polley, John Buchan, Joanna Polley, Sarah Polley, Harry Gulkin
Synopsis:
The Canadian director uses interviews within her family circle, as well as home movie and archive footage, to piece together the truth about her own history.
Review:
For all its earth-shattering revelation as to her paternity, Polley's documentary seems overstretched. It grew out of the affected parties' need to set down a personalised version of events, or rather in resistance to any one version gaining currency. The 'Rashomon effect' is further enhanced by the fact that everyone, film included, seems to gravitate around the central, absent figure of the mother herself, whose oft repeated image is for all that powerless to testify in any meaningful way, except as some kind of life force. The ability of the plentiful home movie footage to illustrate events where required is at times arresting.
Country: CAN
Technical: col/bw 108m
Director: Sarah Polley
Cast: Michael Polley, John Buchan, Joanna Polley, Sarah Polley, Harry Gulkin
Synopsis:
The Canadian director uses interviews within her family circle, as well as home movie and archive footage, to piece together the truth about her own history.
Review:
For all its earth-shattering revelation as to her paternity, Polley's documentary seems overstretched. It grew out of the affected parties' need to set down a personalised version of events, or rather in resistance to any one version gaining currency. The 'Rashomon effect' is further enhanced by the fact that everyone, film included, seems to gravitate around the central, absent figure of the mother herself, whose oft repeated image is for all that powerless to testify in any meaningful way, except as some kind of life force. The ability of the plentiful home movie footage to illustrate events where required is at times arresting.