Directed by Sarah Polley
While making the rounds with her sophomore film the divorce drama Take This Waltz writer-director Sarah Polley went to great lengths to assure everyone that it wasnt just a thinly veiled account of her own marriages dissolution. Conversely, her first foray into the documentary medium sees Polley wholeheartedly embracing autobiographical filmmaking by diving headlong into her familys tangled history.
For those who chided Polleys overwriting on Take This Waltz, alarm bells will be triggered in the early going here. Stylishly assembled (Mike Munns editing is impeccable) while simultaneously deconstructing the talking head-style documentary, Stories initially seems a little too pleased with its own charm and cleverness. However, once Polley has introduced her charismatic subjects her father (who also serves as narrator), siblings and family friends the film grows aesthetically assured (home movies blend seamlessly with recreated footage), intellectually rigorous, and emotionally resonant.
Ostensibly, the film is Polleys attempt to learn the truth about her late mother (who succumbed to cancer when the director was 11), her parents marriage, and her biological fathers identity. As her interviewees alternately corroborate and contradict each others version of events, their situation serves as a springboard for viewers to reexamine the tidy narratives weve shoehorned our own complex lives into. How much licence do we take with the facts? Can anyone rightfully claim sole ownership of a story that involves generations of individuals?
Amidst all of these provocative questions concerning the nature of truth, there is one certainty that emerges: Polley has reestablished herself as one of Canadas most intriguing filmmakers.
