Stories We Tell (2012, Polley, Canada)

A Level Film Studies - Focus Film Factsheet Stories We Tell (2012, Polley, Canada) documentary style and there are performed Component 2 - Global scenes like in drama documentaries. The filmmaking perspectives (AL) overall effect of this range of filming techniques contributes to the reflexive documentary style, a Core Study Areas: film that does not simply explore the relationship Key Elements of Film Form between the director and the subject(s), but Meaning & Response rather the director and the audience. The Contexts of Film • The analysis of Stories We Tell on the Filmslie website (http://filmslie.com/stories- we-tell-review-sarah-polleys-documentary/) Specialist Study Area: offers excellent detail on the cinematography Critical Debates used for each ‘dimension’ of this film. Filmmakers’ Theories • Repeated use of extreme close ups in the real footage of Diane in which she is at Rationale for study once scrutinised but never fully revealed. This reflects the film as a whole. • Critical Acclaim: Stories We Tell won the 2013 New York Film Critics Circle Award Mise-en-Scène for Best Non-Fiction Film and the 2013 Los • Authentic reconstruction of period Angeles Film Critics Association Award for through location choices, costume and Best Documentary. The film was awarded the styling to mislead the spectator. Allan King Documentary award at the 2012 • Inclusion of the technology of filmmaking Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. i.e. lighting rigs, mixing desks and cameras to create the impression of transparency in how the film is constructed. STARTING POINTS - Useful Sequences and timings/links • Use of artefacts e.g. playbills and articles about Diane’s roles in theatre • The film’s opening moments examine contribute to the sense of authenticity. the premise but reveal a lot about its construction too (0:00 – 06:31) Editing • Narrative structure relies on the gradual • Section exploring truth and reveal as new information is drip fed. storytelling (1:15:02 – 1:25:25) • Non-Linear structure creates enigma. The editing takes the audience step by step into the past. CORE STUDY AREAS 1 - STARTING • Mixing of interviews, real footage and POINTS - Key Elements of Film constructed images occurs from the offset Form (Micro Features) encouraging the spectator to accept the style and immerse themselves in the narrative. Cinematography Sound • Uses cinematography techniques from numerous different modes of documentary. The • Music used to create humour at times conventions of the talking heads in medium e.g. silent film section of Harry. shot to medium close up from the participatory • Music by Abraham Lass throughout the interview are featured, moments of fly-on- film is taken from Play Me a Movie: Piano the-wall filming reflect the observational Music to Accompany Silent Movie Scenes 1 A Level Film Studies - Focus Film Factsheet this contributes to the sense of stories supportive of the documentary genre since being told, a ‘truth’ being constructed. John Grierson’s involvement in 1938, through • Shots without dialogue of all the ‘storytellers’ World War 2 propaganda and news reels to in the final moments – use of silence 1980s vignettes of Canadian culture. In 2009 to allow contemplation (1:31:20) the board collaborated with the Canadian Film Centre on a theatrical documentary development programme which led to the CORE STUDY AREAS 2 - STARTING production of Stories We Tell. The choice of POINTS – Meaning & Response making this project with the National Film Representations Board of Canada was deliberate because Polley wanted the freedom to experiment. • Representation of women and promiscuity – refreshing lack of blame around Diane’s infidelity from a lot of the central contributors. SPECIALIST STUDY AREA - Critical Debates • A consideration of the ‘father’ exploring - The Impact of Digital Technology the importance of genetics and nurture. • Representation of truth. One of the key themes Starting points of the film is how many different versions of • 40% of the film is from the family’s old the truth can be held within just one family. Super 8 movies and Super 8 cameras (Canon 1014 AZ, Canon 1014XLS, Nikon R8) are Aesthetics (i.e. the ‘look and feel’ used in the reconstructions to help create the of the film including visual style, illusion of archive footage. This technique influences, auteur, motifs) was time consuming as considering it • Hand-held documentary took three days to process the film. This camerawork creates realism. could be a starting point for discussing the • Home movie aesthetic is created through the challenges of working in that format. use of Super 8, a format the film’s producer • The digital camera, the Sony CineAlta Anita Lee said is loaded as, “it already comes HDW-F900R is used for the contemporary with this notion of nostalgia and the past. It’s a interviews and the crispness of the image medium of a certain time. We associate Super anchors those moments in the present. 8 with home movies lost in basements.” • As the documentary uses digital and film • This is Sarah Polley’s seventh film and producer cameras and the sequences filmed on Anita Lee suggests common themes running digital are actually the more static aspects through Polley’s work, auteur traits. “Her of the film it could be argued that in terms signature is to look at relationships deeply of flexibility and practicality the choice and honestly in a microscopic way, and the of digital or film had minimal impact. emotional waves these relationships have on the people around them. A deep exploration of intimate relationships at different stages SPECIALIST STUDY AREA - was at the core of I Shout Love, Away from Filmmakers’ Theories Her and Take This Waltz, and now Stories Starting points We Tell takes this territory to a new level.” • Stories We Tell arguably uses the interactive mode like the works of Nick Broomfield and CORE STUDY AREAS 3 - STARTING Michael Moore so exploring similarities between POINTS - Contexts their work and this film is a useful activity. • Bill Nichols’ Introduction to Documentary Social offers useful content on the subgenres of • Prevalence of ‘reality’ television and documentary and the theories behind these. mockumentaries in contemporary culture • Explore the role of Sarah Polley as a mediator may influence the spectator to be less between the subjects of her documentary and believing of this film’s mode of storytelling. the spectator. Like Moore and Broomfield, she Institutional guides the audience response not just through • The film was produced by the National Film editing decisions but her role in the interviews. Board of Canada, an organisation hugely 2.

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