Stories We Tell

Sarah Polley's semi-autobiographical documentary "Stories We Tell" is a poignant and nuanced exploration of memory, storytelling, and the complexity of family relationships. The film centers around the filmmaker's personal experience and her desire to understand the truth about her family's past, particularly her mother's life. Through a series of interviews with family members and friends, Polley delves into the intricacies of human memory, revealing how our perceptions of reality are shaped by our individual perspectives and experiences. The film begins with Polley's voice, recalling the stories her mother, Diane Polley, told her about her family's history. As she grows older, Sarah becomes increasingly fascinated with the discrepancies in her mother's tales, sensing that there are untold stories hidden beneath the surface. Diane's untimely death at the age of 45, from ovarian cancer, only serves to ignite Sarah's curiosity, prompting her to embark on a journey to uncover the truth about her family's past. Polley's approach is both personal and methodical. She begins by interviewing her family members, including her father, Michael, and her siblings, who all offer varying accounts of their mother's life. We see fragments of the Polley family's history unfold through these recollections, revealing a complex tapestry of love, loss, and deception. Sarah's siblings, particularly her sister, Maggie, and her brother, Mark, share intimate stories about their mother's struggles with her marriage to Michael, as well as her struggles with depression and anxiety. As the interviews weave together, it becomes clear that each family member has their own interpretation of events. Michael, in particular, emerges as a character with a complex and often contradictory narrative about his marriage to Diane. He portrays himself as a devoted husband and father, but his version of events is at odds with the accounts of his children, who remember their mother as struggling to cope with the pressures of marriage and family life. Through her interviews, Polley raises essential questions about the nature of memory and how it shapes our perceptions of reality. She explores the ways in which our individual experiences, biases, and motivations can influence our recollections, often leading to inconsistencies and discrepancies. This is exemplified in the contrasting accounts of her siblings, each with their own unique perspective on their mother's life. The cumulative effect of these testimonies creates a complex puzzle, with multiple pieces that fail to fit neatly together. Polley's approach to storytelling is itself a central theme of the film. By using herself as both the investigator and the subject, she creates a meta-narrative that blurs the lines between documentary and fiction. This technique allows her to comment on the very notion of storytelling, revealing how our experiences and memories are filtered through the narratives we create about ourselves and our lives. The film's title, "Stories We Tell," is a reference to the notion that our lives are comprised of multiple narratives, each with its own contradictions and inconsistencies. Polley's investigation becomes a search for the thread that connects these disparate stories, a quest to find the truth behind the multiple accounts. In this sense, the film becomes an exploration of the human experience, where stories are constantly evolving, and the truth is often shrouded in mystery. Ultimately, "Stories We Tell" is a deeply personal and philosophical exploration of the nature of memory, storytelling, and family relationships. Polley's documentary raises essential questions about the reliability of human recollection, the importance of context, and the ways in which our experiences shape our perceptions of reality. By blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, she creates a unique cinematic language that is both poignant and thought-provoking. In the end, "Stories We Tell" leaves us with a profound sense of the complexity and fragility of human memory, where the truth is always subject to revision, and the stories we tell about ourselves are never quite complete.