Sarah Polly We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order To Live Analysis

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live” (Joan Didion). Sarah Polley 's personal documentary is astonishing within each approach that was taken, commencing its postmodern structure to the unprocessed sentiment of its cautiously exposed family secrets. “I just started thinking of storytelling as a really basic human need and wanted to make a film about that, I think” (Sarah Polly).

When researching different aspects of the film, I had come across an interview by Germain Lussier, Sarah Polly was asked “What made you want to make a movie that explores the function of storytelling?” and Sarah replied by stating; “I think what kind of captivated me about what was happening in the aftermath of this story in my own life was the way we were all telling the stories about it, and the way those stories were different from each other. There are these huge gaps between

Initially she is seen strongly framed during the first layer, the very next shot, she is in a similar arrangement seen during the wider and more remote perspectives of the last layer. The second shot frames Polley collectively with film workers and film gear, previous to panning to the left and which shows Sarah Polley and cinematographer Iris Ng in the rear of the camera that is shooting the first layer.

Stories We Tell has a complicated structure of account levels that issues its own truthful precision. On one level, the documentary is a touching family narrative that reveals unpredicted secrets throughout the consultations with the Polley family. In the course of the recording, enlightened the memories of Dianne Polley, “in many ways, you know, it’s like trying to bring someone to life through people’s stories of them,” as Sarah states in the film. The difficult work of the film deliberately imitates the real-life uncertainty of the narrative. “You don’t ever get to an answer,” Joanna states within moments