It is permeable, unreliable and personal. And telling it has brought her closer to Michael. In 2009, Polley directed a two-minute short film in support of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. But being candid doesnt mean that you always know what the truth is. This entry, titled Alice, Collapsing, is one that Polley said shed made multiple attempts at completing since she was 19. Regretfully, I am forced to remove my name from the film and disassociate myself from it. Polley writes that, as other charges mounted against Ghomeshi in this era before the #MeToo movement, she was dissuaded from coming forward by friends, lawyers and other experts who warned that her memory and sexual history would be subjected to merciless cross-examination. There is a memorable line from Take This Waltz that goes: "Life has a gap in it, it just does." She sees the harnessing of his writing talent as "something my mother always wanted, a last thing I could do for her". It is the remembering that matters. "As a middle-class woman with a career, it is unimaginable to think of a woman having her children taken away because her 'desire for a career overtook her domestic duties'." "Stories We Tell" is about Sarah Polley's family - in particular about her mother - Diane - who died of cancer on January 10, 1990 when Sarah was eleven years old. On the upside, the experience afforded her the opportunity to more intimately understand her mother. I did get to spend so much time with everybody my mom was close to and ask them for hours uninterrupted about what she was like, she said. She looks like a contemplative Madonna on screen, with long, fair hair. After her first marriage failed, she was the first woman in Canada to lose custody of her children, permitted to see John and Susy only once a month. Presenting a Rashomon-like maze of contradictory interviews, Polley puts her entire family on camera, including her four siblings and two dads. That only gets enhanced when her brothers and sisters drop one story on Sarah they might not tell someone else. ), I feel a relief in finally just standing up, she said. [10] Diane Polley was born on 31 August 1936 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She had five kids, commuted to work and yet she slept so little. She made her acting debut aged four and is critical of the way child actors are treated. When actress mom Diane Polley died, Sarah was just eleven. In the film, that is what Sarahdoes. "In December 2009, I made a film to be aired during the Academy Awards that I believed was to promote the Heart and Stroke Foundation. As she grew up in Toronto under the care of her father, Michael, Polleys conception of her mother was fuzzily constructed from memories, photographs and family stories. Sarah grew up with a family joke that she did not look anything like her siblings. "The result here is a more intricate self-portrait, since Diane's affairwhich Polley's search unearths and [17][18], Polley attended Subway Academy II, then Earl Haig Secondary School, but dropped out at age 15. Meanwhile she divorced, remarried, raised a mutant child in the sci-fi horror film Splice, portrayed a depressed mother in Mr. Nobody, directed Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in Take This Waltz, and had a baby. In 2022 she released her first book of essays, the autobiographical, Run Towards the Danger which detailed her experiences in film, TV and on stage. But I made the film to have agency in how the story was going to be told. Documentaries dont usually require spoiler alerts. Polley cornered each of her four siblings for multiple daylong interviews, asking each to recount the story of their mothers life. It was really interesting to have a big drama in your own life, and have this need to make it into narrative.. We all, in various ways, fell apart. Michael Polley and Sarahs biological father also speak at length on camera, each discussing the woman they loved, their relationship with her and even their feelings about the other man. The interviews are remarkably candid, with the main players expressing a wide range of emotions: regret, empathy and self-criticism. With a seamless weaving of home movies real and faux, Polley conjures up her mother as a vivacious party girl. When I found it, I thought, Oh, my God, I get to watch this, watch her face. Since making the film, she volunteers, she keeps hearing stories far more "extraordinary" than her own. She was competent and beautiful [unusual to dovetail these adjectives]. [12] During her childhood, Polley's siblings teased her because she bore no physical resemblance to Michael. ", Making the film has changed the way Sarah sees her mother. Copyright 2023 St. Joseph Communications. Michael quotes Pablo Neruda: "Love is so short, forgetting so long." I always knew that story, but I didnt know there was footage of it. At 14, she left home. [45] Shirley Li of The Atlantic called it "vibrant cinema," while Anna Bogutskaya of Time Out (magazine) said that it "imagines female emancipation as an honest, raging, caring experience. I had a fever for 2 weeks after I read that result. Diane Kucera stands in her usual spot behind the sleek, Seriously, one of the most jaw-dropping revelations occurs halfway through the final credits. To this day, Polley told me her emotions surrounding Baron Munchausen are not easily categorized. A young Sarah Polley and her actor father, Michael Polley, on a long-ago day; the photo is one of many family memories that surface in Stories We Tell, a superb meditation on dramatizing memory from the director of Away from Her. Shes an artist, he said. To be reintroduced to her world with such detail and such a brilliant sense of self-observation, so many years later, was really shocking.. Her film may be her story but she gets others to tell it. Early reviews out of last years Telluride and Toronto film festivals were glowing. The directors next film, which shes writing while her seven-month-old daughter naps, is an adaptation of Margaret Atwoods Booker Prize-winning novel Alias Grace. And my biological father was also writing about it. Sarah Polley, center, was 8 when she played Sally Salt in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen., Columbia Pictures, via Everett Collection, Polley in a scene from her 2012 documentary Stories We Tell., I thrive on too-intimate conversations with people, Polley said. Im indiscreet about myself sometimes. I realized Ive gone to all this trouble and people are going to read the story before they see the film anyway. She closely examined the details of Diane Polleys life, from a career perspective and her tumultuous private life. It ran from 1996 to 1998 and she won the Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Children's or Youth Program or Series for her role. It is not often you get that freedom interviewing." [59], In 2007, Polley discovered that her father, Michael Polley, who had raised her, was not her biological father. 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Jordan Michael B. Handsome at Walk of Fame ceremony. In 2005, she starred in The Secret Life of Words, opposite Tim Robbins and Julie Christie. Yet her film also reveals that everyone has a subtly different story to tell. He tried hard and, to some extent, rallied. Away from Her was acquired by Lionsgate for release in the US for the sum of $750,000. I was hiring her as an actress. Diane Polley was used to harsh judgment. He was holding her on his feet as she couldn't stand and she started crying. The star was best known for his role as Gilbert Blythe in the CBC TV Anne of Green Gables movies. Western Law welcomes new faculty. Her son Mark Polley is also an actor.[2]. I knew better not to do it and yet I kept doing it. I have never actively promoted any corporate brand, and cannot do so now. Diane sings a spoof of Ain't Misbehavin' called I'm Misbehaving. For one battle scene, she was repeatedly made to run a terrifying gantlet of explosives and debris. To update your cookie settings, please visit the, Academic & Personal: 24 hour online access, Corporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online access, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(13)70470-4, The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia, The Lancet Regional Health Western Pacific, Statement on offensive historical content, For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal', For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'. Starring: Michael Polley, Michael Polley, Sarah Polley. There are stops and starts in the voice-over because Dad isn't just a character in this story, you see; he's the narrator, too, which gives the film a very intimate feel. Initially conceived as a collaboration between director Wim Wenders and his friend of 20 years, the choreographer Pina Bausch, after Bausch died in 2009 of cancer, Pina took on a life of its own. Polley also appeared in stage productions. Like an elaborate game of telephone, everyone had a slightly different take upon learning the identity of Sarahs biological father. His quirky, engagingly self-deprecatory commentary contributes hugely to the film's charm. But she wants to impress on me that she still regards her story as ordinary, whatever others may say. Polley's mom died in 1990 of cancer, and her father remembers bonding then with his youngest daughter. Like his siblings, he felt skeptical that anyone outside the family would care about the story, but he was also energized by the experience. She has a transparent complexion and guileless smile. [58], On October 15, 2017, Polley wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times detailing her experience with Harvey Weinstein and with Hollywood's treatment of women generally, and making a connection between Hollywood's gendered power relations and Polley's not having acted in years. Is Sarah at all like her? In another chapter, The Woman Who Stayed Silent, Polley revisits what she used to call a funny party story about my worst date ever with Jian Ghomeshi, the musician and former CBC radio host who in 2016 was acquitted of five charges related to sexual assault. 19 April 2015. [4] Polley's second film, Take This Waltz (2011), premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival,[5] followed by her first documentary film, Stories We Tell (2012). [43] [44] It was released to widespread acclaim, with 90% of critics giving it a positive review on Rotten Tomatoes. ", Polley in the present day, with her Super-8 camera. When Diane died, on 10 January, 1990, Sarah and Michael were left to their own devices. Canadian actress, film director and screenwriter, Western University (2018). Polley, who became a mother herself during the making of this familial drama, found herself needing breaks during the long process, at one point leaving Stories We Tell for seven months to write and direct Take This Waltz, a narrative feature starring Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen released in the U.S. last year. Polley discovered as an adult that her biological father was actually Harry Gulkin, with whom her mother had an affair (as chronicled in Polley's film Stories We Tell). All families, she suggests, do. The movie, starring Julie Christie (with whom she had played in No Such Thing, 2001, and The Secret Life of Words, 2005), debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2006, as part of the TIFF's Gala showcase. And then Sarah tells me at my prompting about her last memory of her mother: "A few days before she died and just before she went into a coma, I remember Dad dancing with her to Blue Spanish Eyes one of her favourite songs. On a Saturday morning this past January, Polley was speaking in a video interview from her home in Toronto. Memory is not a convenient barn in which truth can be stored through successive winters. That experience gravely affected her children and serves as something of an explanation as to why she did not leave Michael for Sarahs father. I have never seen a city with glossier, better tended roses. What got me interested was my fathers unusual and unexpected response to the news. I got really, really ill. She made her feature-length film directing debut with Away from Her, which Polley adapted from the Alice Munro short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain. Retrieved on March 17, 2020 from, "When asked what directors she admires, Polley talks about Ingmar Bergman and Terrence Malick (she says his, Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction, 2012 New Democratic Party leadership race, Governor General's Performing Arts Awards, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, "Moviegoers pulled in by Gravity: Tiff Tweets", "Nobody's Starlet: Toronto's Sarah Polley is Only 20 but already a veteran actor so secure in her craft she can thumb her nose at Hollywood", "TIFF 2011: U2, Brad Pitt, George Clooney Films Featured At 2011 Toronto International Film Festival", "Sarah Polley to adapt Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace", "Stories We Tell: Sarah Polley's compassionate portrait of a complex, flawed woman: her mother", "An Actress with Doubts, but Not About Directing", "Stories We Tell: A post by Sarah Polley", "Venice Review: Sarah Polley Examines Her Own Family In Lovely, Fascinating 'Stories We Tell', "Sarah Polley reveals personal secret in new documentary", "Truth and Lies: A Q&A With Montreal Film Producer Harry Gulkin", "Sarah Polley doc wins Toronto critics' $100K prize", "Sarah Polley on Documenting Family Secrets", "OCAP took me in when I was 15, living on my own, with no community", "Sarah Polley at the Canadian Women Film Directors Database", "Sarah Polley's new film reveals her secret parentage", "Production / Event Register: Production Display", "Caught Through the Looking Glass: Sarah Polley on Grief, Girlhood, and Scoliosis", "Sarah Polley to receive Jutra trophy at Genies", "Exclusive: TIFF to host Polley's "Stories," Kastner's "Disco", "A Better Man documentary explores aftermath of abusive relationships", "Margaret Atwood: 'I am not a prophet. [35] In March 2015, Polley was hired to write the script for a new adaptation of Little Women, as well as potentially direct;[36] however, Polley's involvement in the project never went beyond initial discussions, despite reports. She also made a second short film that year, Don't Think Twice. Sarah Polley news, gossip, photos of Sarah Polley, biography, Sarah Polley boyfriend list 2023. . I think its a lot to absorb and kinda difficult.. [50] In 2003, she was part of former Toronto mayor David Miller's transition advisory team. It was at this time that she famously got "roughed up" by riot police protesting at a conservative government cutting welfare benefits and lost two back teeth. He taught himself to cook "amazingly". Genealogy profile for Diane Elizabeth Polley. While Polley was recuperating from her concussion, Atwood said she held the rights to her novel Alias Grace a book that Polley first asked her if she could adapt when she was 17 so that she could complete a TV mini-series based on it. I never believed the secret could be kept this long, says Polley, sitting down for her first interview about the movie, scheduled for release Oct. 12. In 2022 she revealed she had in fact been suffering from intense stage fright, something that continued to plague her into adulthood. But its kind of exhilarating, realizing that whatever story youve been telling about yourself and everyone tells those stories isnt you. Harry Gulkin Harry Gulkin is a Montreal producer, who had an affair with Sarah's mother, Diane. He looked up to his kids. Privacy PolicyTerms and ConditionsAccessibility, To read this article in full you will need to make a payment. Both dads vie for custody of the story. Characterising a parent is an odd business because it involves detaching from the early, unquestioning relationship and, on one level, becoming your parent's parent in the process. The revelation of Polleys true parentage landed her in bed for two weeks, ill with a long fever. As generous as shes been, Im also part of that weird conspiracy against her ability to grow up normally., (Polley responded in an email, I had transformative, beautiful experiences working on Atoms films. Yet a few pages later, Polley finds herself regretting that she absolved Gilliam too easily, having bought into the archetype of the out-of-control white male genius: Its so pervasive, this idea that genius cant come without trouble, that it has paved the way for countless abuses, she writes. She took care of us brilliantly. Critics have responded favourably to Stories We Tell and have sited it as an important move forward in Polleys evolution as a filmmaker. Sarah Polley at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills. The series premiered in 2017 on CBC Television in Canada; it streams on Netflix globally, outside of Canada. George Bernard Shaw wrote: "If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance." [11], Polley was raised by Diane and Michael. But there was one puzzle that did not go away. Polley made her feature film directorial debut with Away from Her (2006), for which she won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. 34 year old Sarah tells of how the news started many family conversations at the dinner table and she noted how everyones story was different with each family member highlighting a different aspect of the tale. By Dave Itzkoff. She adds that she was never under any illusions about her mother's "devastation and guilt at losing Johnny and Susy". [49] She was nominated as Best European Actress by the European Film Academy for her role as Hanna. Mini Bio (1) Diane Polley was born on August 31, 1936 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [8][9], Polley's son John Buchan is also a casting director. My body went into shock and sickness, and every time Ive gone to Montreal since then, I get really sick, she said. Everything about her, including her handshake, has a lightness of touch like her work. What's more, there is a freedom now, a sense that "the story does not belong to anyone". But Stories We Tell, which was produced by the National Film Board, unwraps the riddle of Polleys birth with such compelling intrigue that documentary seems to undersell it. I didnt want to do it. Stories We Tell revolves firstly around Diane Polley, the director's energetic mother and sometimes stage actress, who died of cancer when Polley was eleven years old. I find that really gratifying. A talented actress ("The Sweet Hereafter") turned gifted director ("Away From Her," "Take This Waltz"), she initially structures "Stories We Tell" as an attempt to discover more about her mother,. I am compulsively early I get to airports three hours early." [9][49] She was subsequently involved with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. Here, she trips up your expectations right through the final fade. The officiator just said: never mind." As I fly to Canada to meet Sarah Polley, I think about the glimpses of her in Stories We Tell her first full-length documentary feature, which bowled over critics at Sundance and the Venice film festival and has won Canada's Film of the Year award. [64][65], On October 16, 2010, it was announced that she would receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. We are never going to feel that life is complete but we live in an age that tells us that this is a problem." One shop promises to waylay passers by and teach them how to knit. The death came as a shock, even though her father and older . Science fiction is really about now', "Netflix Nabs Sarah Polley Miniseries Based on Margaret Atwood True-Crime Novel", "Sarah Polley will adapt and direct John Green's 'Looking for Alaska', "Amy Pascal, Sarah Polley Team on 'Little Women' Remake at Sony (Exclusive)", "Why it's a perfect time for Greta Gerwig's version of 'Little Women', "Why Rebecca Thomas Directing John Green's 'Looking For Alaska' Is A Big Deal", "John Green Dodges Questions About Looking for Alaska Movie Replacement", "Putting Timothy Olyphant in a silly Santa hat only makes him more menacing", "Frances McDormand to Star in 'Women Talking' From Director Sarah Polley", "Telluride Unveils Lineup of Films to "Fight About", "https://deadline.com/2022/11/women-talking-christmas-release-date-rooney-mara-sarah-polley-1235175344/", https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/women_talking, "When a Single Conversation Can Mean Life or Death", "Nominating Peter Kormos for the Ontario NDP leadership was the proudest moment of my life", "Sarah Polley's new work gets Oscar debut", "Sarah Polley pulls her name from Heart and Stroke film over Becel sponsorship", "The matter with The Heart is product endorsement", "Sarah Polley strips name from Oscar short", "Sarah Polley picks Peggy Nash for NDP leader", "Sarah Polley: The Men You Meet Making Movies", "Sarah Polley makes only movies she'd see - from indies to zombie flicks", "Sarah Polley talks of her 'whole new level' of breastfeeding while screening latest film in Colorado", http://alumni2.westernu.ca/fam/western-law/2018/western-law-welcomes-new.html, "Sarah Polley breaks silence about traumatic encounter with Jian Ghomeshi", "2010 Inductees for The Canada Honours Announced", "NFB shorts: Stories Sarah Tells, Canadian Famous and Daniel Lanois", "Sarah Polley, Blue Rodeo founders join Order of Canada", "Sarah Polley named ACTRA's Woman of the Year", "Sarah Polley's 'Stories We Tell' wins Writers Guild award", Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress, Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Screenplay, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First Film, Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Breakthrough Filmmaker, San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sarah_Polley&oldid=1142761912, Best Actress Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners, Best Director Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners, Best First Feature Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners, Best Screenplay Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners, Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Canadian Screen Award winners, Canadian people of Russian-Jewish descent, Directors of Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners for Best Live Action Short Drama, Directors of Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners for Best Documentary Film, Governor General's Performing Arts Award winners, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Main role (seasons 15), guest (seasons 67), Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in 2007, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series, Best Performance in a Children's or Youth Program or Series, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series, Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega (2011), This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 06:30. I think actors are trained to go to the emotion in them that is most suitable for their character at that moment, Atwood said. Like a father surveying his family from the head of a dining table, he reads aloud, savouring the narrative. "And the ones that don't think they do have not scratched the surface hard enough yet.". And she has not given up on it now although with the directing and writing (she is working on a screenplay of Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace) there has been no spare time. Sarah even found and filmed a newspaper cutting reporting on the case. And I think the ship bearing my chance at a normal childhood/transition to adulthood had sailed long before I met Atom.). She previously directed the 2012 documentary Stories We Tell, which used interviews with her family members and re-enactments to reveal that her own birth had been the result of her mothers affair with a man who was not the father who raised her. Polley attended the Canadian Film Centre's directing program in 2001, and won the Genie Award for Best Live Action Short Drama in 2003 for her short film I Shout Love. That was such a relief, said Polley, whose next project is adapting Margaret Atwoods Alias Grace. This was something that compelled me. "When I watch the black-and-white footage of my mother auditioning, staring out into the audience, I feel maternal about her," Sarah says. Diane is a socialite, who feels hemmed in by her introverted husband. Despite Polleys comfort in front of the camera, turning her lens inward was no easy feat. . I think to make it your job to think about your family and to dredge up stuff about your family all day, every day would make anybody totally crazy. I thrive on too-intimate conversations with people, she said. Polley was nominated for the Oscar for her screenplay and the star of the film, Julie Christie, was nominated for Best Actress. Gulkin says he was utterly besotted, and after she gave birth to Sarah, at 42, we remained in love for a very long time.. She was an actress and casting director, known for Philip Marlowe, Private Eye (1983), Encounter (1952) and The Ray Bradbury Theater (1985). One of the film's most moving sequences records the feelings about this cruelty all these years later. Polley had five children, several of whom followed their parents into theatre, including her youngest, actor and director Sarah Polley. It includes many friends all of whom have versions of her. Touring the world with friends one mile and pub at a time; southlake carroll basketball. Polley has written numerous essays over the years about her experiences as a child star. The youngest of five children born to actress Diane Polley, Sarah learned that she was the product of an affair her mother had with a Montreal movie producera secret Diane took to her grave when she died of cancer just after Sarahs 11th birthday. As a director, you have conversations with your actors and you get to know things about their lives, Egoyan said. Film producer Harry Gulkin describes her magnetism and takes Sarah to task because he wants the story told his way. It binds everyone together." Two days after her 11th birthday, Sarah Polley lost her mother to cancer. In fact, there was even speculation that their actress mother Diane, who died of cancer before Polley hit her teen years, had had an affair with an actor who she was appearing with in a play in Montreal. [17] In 2017, Polley executive produced the film A Better Man (2017),[31], In late 2012, Polley announced that she would be adapting Margaret Atwood's novel Alias Grace. In the film, Polley breaks up her father's narration with interviews conducted with other members of her family. She was previously married to Michael Polley and George Deans-Buchan. During the making of the film, her sisters also divorced their spouses.) She did so much perhaps it is not such a surprise she died at 53.". Stories We Tell is an intimate documentary that took five years to make. Two days after her 11th birthday, Sarah Polley lost her mother to cancer. It took Polley almost a year before she could bring herself to tell the man who raised her that she doesnt share his genes. It was so strange, to have to completely reimagine where you biologically come from.. Sarah Ellen Polley OC (born January 8, 1979) is a Canadian filmmaker, political activist and retired actress. Yet the pressure was on because I wanted to get it all right and authentic for Sarah and the story that was unfolding for her.. She has starred in many feature films, including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Exotica (1994), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Guinevere (1999), Go (1999), The Weight of Water (2000), No Such Thing (2001), My Life Without Me (2003), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Splice (2009), and Mr. Nobody (2009).