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Sarah Ellen Polley is a Canadian actress, writer, director, and political activist. Sarah has starred and directed many popular films. One of the films she directed was Stories We Tell. Sarah Polley's compelling documentary, Stories We Tell, mainly focuses on her mother, Diane Polley, who passed away of cancer when Sarah was 11 years old in 1990. This documentary discusses Sarah Polley’s family secrets. Stores We Tell examines the deep and eventful relationship between Polley's parents: Michael and Diane Polley. The film includes many interviews with Polley's siblings from her mother's two marriages, and other interviews with other relatives and family friends. Families create their own stories and narratives. Each family has a unique story. …show more content…
Families are all different and develop certain characteristics over generations. All those stories are passed on from a generation to the next. In this documentary, all the stories told by all the family members come together to form one voice and tell a single story about the life of Diane Polley. Stories We Tell is designed as many other narrative structures, furthering encouraging us, the audience, to consider not just the meaning of stories being told in the “interrogations”, but also how the method the story is told can dramatically alter its effects on our opinions.
Polley calls her interview subjects "The Storytellers,” which includes her older siblings and other important figures in Diane Polley’s life. The documentary begins with Sarah setting up to film with her father in a recording booth, to narrate the documentary. It's a film about making a film which Polley considers to be an "interrogation …show more content…
process." The storytellers discuss and describe Diane Polley’s life, her behavior, and her marriage. Sarah Polley has no plan in ensuring her own form of the story is the reality. She has no intent in protecting her own version of the story or protecting her mother. She is very engrossed and charmed in how her family members interact with their own impressions, and where the stories may agree or contradict. All the people in the film are closely related, and were very comfortable with Diane. It is one big family. They all miss Diane Polley. The loss is immeasurable. Sarah requests that each storyteller to "tell the story from the beginning until now," and as they begin, hesitantly at first, Polley provides the plot with photographs videos of her mother Diane.
The footage was taken at family social gatherings, and it shows how Diane was the life of the party. She talked to everyone and was an exceptionally social individual. She had an impact on every member of the family. Sarah Polley interviews her siblings and her mother's friends, and these stories are both significant and comical. But her conversations with Harry Gulkin unveil something more tense. Harry Gulkin is the Sarah Polley’s biological father. Harry and Diane had an intimate relationship, while Diane was married. At the time of filming, Harry Gulkin wanted to publish a memoir of Diane Polley. Michael wrote his feelings, and occasionally throughout the documentary, he reads passages aloud. He reads them in the recording studio, while Sarah guides and questions him. She often asked for
retakes. Many of the stories told in the interviews Sarah runs accompany each other. Each family member provides their point of view about Diane Polley’s response to the news of her pregnancy with Sarah. Michael says that Diane was extremely worried and was considering abortion. Michael did not agree with the abortion of the baby, but he did not explicitly state that to Diane. Sarah’s uncle verified this story about Diane’s reaction. He likewise wanted Diane to keep the baby. Sarah’s father said that Diane determined that she is going to have the baby as they were on their way to the abortion appointment. John, Sarah’s oldest brother, says that Diane was excited to have the baby. Some of Diane’s friends did not agree, saying that she was not happy. Finally, Harry, the baby’s biological father, says that Diane was ecstatic about having a baby and so was Harry. All these stories add up together to form one story about the Diane Polley pregnancy. Stories We Tell is a meaningful film, through the use of the unique structure of the film and the questionable style it is introduced and presented to the audience. Furthermore, it is very fulfilling and clear, with touching stories to pass along to upcoming generations. Everyone has his or her memories of Diane Polley, but most bond to the mutually acknowledged and accepted facts of her life. What is more pivotal to Sarah is not only how each family member organizes those stories, but also how they deliver the story. Finally, Stories We Tell is a very clear and rewarding film, with touching stories to pass along to up and coming generations.
Sarah Polley’s film Stories We Tell is as much about how we interpret images – what we take as “true” – as it is about how we remember. Through a close analysis of the film discuss what you think the film sets out to do and how it achieves these aims. In answering this question you might also want to look at reviews of the film.
To begin, it is evident today that teenagers love being connected with their friends and family all at the tip of their thumbs. They love texting. According to a study by Amanda Lenhart, 88 percent of teens use a cell phone or smart phone of which 90 percent of them use text message. An average teen sends 30 texts per day. (Lenhart) As shown in this study, teens have easy access to text messaging. In her Ted talks called “Texting That Save Lives” and “The Heartbreaking Text That Inspired a Crisis Help Line,” Nancy Lublin talks about how she received disturbing text messages from young people that mentions how they’re being bullied, wanting to commit suicide, cutting themselves, and being raped by their father. She was exceedingly emotional when receiving these texts. She felt like she had to do something about it. So, with her knowledge about teens and the power of texting, Nancy Lublin created something that would help save these young kids’ lives, the Crisis Text Line. (“Texting”)(“Heartbreaking”)
It seemed as though the film was following the lead of the television show, You’ve been Caught on Candid Camera; the interviewees and people at the town meeting had no clue there were video cameras taping them. It’s like they video camera was hidden in someone’s shirt pocket or in someone’s glass frames. I am amazed not one person in the film looked at the camera.
In the beginning, for example, it can be noted that the producers who are talking about dealing with Ma Rainey, are getting ready for rehearsal. Wilson appears to showing us to sides of story of how they feel about recording Ma. In one way there is Sturdyvant
Human; relating to or having characteristics of a person(Merriam-Webster). A human is truly just a soul combined with characteristics of other people, and this is proven by Jenna Fox; the main character in The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson. After finding out what her body is made up of, Jenna along with other characters think she is not human. Despite this Jenna Fox has always had the key elements it takes to be a human been. Jenna for one has a past and memories that make up her life even after the accident. More importantly it is unfair to call her a “monster” when she shows characteristics similar to that of other humans. Needless to say, Jenna just as any other human isn’t perfect, and she later learns that in order to be one hundred percent human she must have the same chances of succeeding in life as any other human would. Jenna Fox is human because she has a soul regardless of her differences.
The ability to tell one’s own story, to speak one’s mind, is the best antidote to powerlessness. Tan’s writing instills agency and visibility in Chinese American women. The silence is broken, and their new voices are constructed in collective storytelling, a language of community, without denying or erasing the different positions such collaboration encounters. Tan compels each of her characters to tell their own story in their own words, thus (re)creating the meanings of their life. The interrelated narratives make sense only if readers can discern the specificities of each woman’s story as located within the novel.
Wright, L., & Leahey, M. (Directors). (2000). How to Do a 15 Minute (or Less) Family Interview [Video].
In the early 1940’s Marie was born into a small tight knit family living in a small rural Kentucky town. Marie is now in her seventies and has led a very interesting life traveling the country, raising four children, and shaping her chosen profession. Our interview sessions were conducted over a period of time, as Marie is very active and has little “free time” to spare.
In the book Ordinary People by Judith Guest, Conrad Jarret was a boy recovering from his brother’s death as well as his suicide attempt. In the story many people tried to help him recover for example his father, who constantly looked over Conrad and made Conrad feel wanted by at least one of his parents. Then there was Joe Lazenby a longtime friend who had cared about Conrad since they were kids. In the end I believe that there were two characters that exhibited more care and love toward Conrad in times of need, the characters are Jeannine and Dr. Berger. These characters exhibited the uttermost love and care for Conrad in his true time of need. Nothing had stopped them, they always had a way to take care of Conrad and they sped up his recovery
Grief in media rarely goes in depth and is often rush often with little consideration to how it impacts people 's everyday lives. This may be a reflection of how grief is viewed in our society. Collectively people are uncomfortable with death and talking about it publicly. We rather acknowledged it as little as possible. The movie “My girl” takes on the unique plotline of grief and loss. The movie, taking place in a funeral home, touches on both tangible and symbolic loss. These losses are represented in numerous instances throughout the movie within the character development of the main cast.
The documentary is about a homeless undocumented girl, Izucar but the documentary film also seeks other issues like poverty, domestic violence, child labor and suicide. Throughout the film, Izucar speaks directly to the camera as she discusses her family, memories and
She does so because the film itself represents the reality of a normal, messy life. Critics have claimed that by having a variety of family members answer challenging questions, the film quilts together the memories of each person into a, as Guy London explains it, “a startling series of reveals”. She choses to interview people who are closest to the story of how Diane and Micheal met, which includes, Polley’s siblings, and other relatives. The film beings with closely knit clips of each family describing how they are nervous in unique ways. Once Polley finally tells her subjects to “tell the entire story from start to finish”, they are all baffled and one family member even says, “who even cares about our family”. Polley choses to show these clips to connect the audience to the story because introducing the family as an ordinary family that average people “wont care about” will get Polley’s point across that stories are what represent all families. Critics has also mentioned that by including a variation of wide shots that occasionally even show parts of filmmaking, like the mic, medium shots of the subject on their own couch or chair, and close shots that usual reveal the, “supportive but understandably bemused testimonies”. These variety of shots make the atmosphere authentic because having the mic in the shot normally considered a mistake, and long shots of people
There are many themes that occur and can be interpreted differently throughout the novel. The three main themes that stand out most are healing, communication, and relationships.
Characterizing identity is very difficult and challenging, which put every person in a tough situation to look for where, who and how she or he belongs and is defined as. People most often defined as their race or country they came from. However, especially in the American society race and ethnicity is a big social problem specially with the huge amount of immigrants Seeking the United States. This is what George Saunders presented in his dystopian story “the semplica-girl diaries” (A story from the collection “Tenth of December” by George Saunders). In the story Saunders displayed the impression of immigrant girls selling their bodies as of idea to show how foreign people and immigrants lower their
It seemed like a normal day when I entered Mrs. A’s AP Language and Composition class, but little did I know that she was going to assign a very important project that was going to take forever. I took my seat and wrote down what was on the board. Then I sat patiently and waited for Mrs. A to come explain what we were doing today. When the tardy bell rang, Mrs. A glided into the room and gave us all a stack of papers. She then proceeded to discuss our upcoming assignment, a memoir. As she explained the very important assignment, I wondered whom I would write about. No one really came to mind to write about and I thought for sure I would never be able to get this thing done on time. I finally decided that I would write in on my mother, Kari Jenson. I knew I would probably put the project off until the very end and do it the weekend before even though it would get on my mom’s nerves. Putting work off was just how I did everything, it worked for me. When I arrived home from school that day, I told mom about the project. I told her I would most likely write it about her and she was overjoyed.