$10.00
This essay is a response to the following prompt:
Prompt: How does Sarah Polley explore the complex nature of storytelling in the film ‘Stories We Tell’?
Description
Check out this sneak-peek
Sarah Polley’s hybrid documentary ‘Stories We Tell’ examines the role of storytelling as a sense making exercise. Attempting to reconstitute her mother amidst the ‘wreckage’ of the past, the process of discovering ‘who Diane was’, becomes a ‘confusion’ instead of a resolution. The revelation that Diane was a ‘woman of secrets’ suggests that in her absence, it is almost impossible to accurately represent a mother who died when Sarah was 11. Despite this conundrum, Sarah Polley ambitiously strives to recover Diane Polley by using a poly-vocal approach to storytelling. This is evident in the inclusion of three narrative perspectives. Michael Polley’s role as the non-diegetic narrator provides order to a story that is fragmented. As the director, Sarah Polley remains behind the scenes as the key ‘interrogator’, shaping and editing the content, before breaking the fourth wall and contributing also, to the telling of the story. Finally, Harry Gulkin’s role in telling a story that he believes is only ‘his to tell’ helps to consolidate the many parts of Diane Polley. Whilst the three perspectives offer quite different accounts of Diane, they all, in the end, contribute to a story that is truthful.
