Stories We Tell

Directed by: Sarah Polley

2013 | Canada | 108 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

A film that excavates layers of myth and memory to find the elusive truth at the core of a family of storytellers.

“Stories We Tell is cinema cutting to the profound truth of why we use narrative to make sense of the world. Film-maker Sarah Polley opens her private life and the revelation she was the product of an affair to piece together the fallout of that bombshell. Not content with relying on her perspective of these events Polley insists upon capturing all sides of her mother’s story. This retrospective, years after her mother’s passing, uses a combination of home video and interviews with her mother’s friends as she tries to make sense of her origin; and to get to the core of the woman whose decisions continue to shape her. This is as intimate as documentary gets and yet it’s honest about the fundamental manipulative nature of cinema.” - Blake Howard, That Movie Show

Best Documentary & Best Film, Toronto Critics Awards, 2013