Friday 26 May 2023

Stories We Tell - final discussion

 What is a documentary?

  • A film that purports to document reality, and to demonstrate a sense of verisimilitude 
  • However, the notion of reality is highly contentious, and ultimately highly subjective 
  • Every single decision, every single shot, edit, choice of subject, aesthetic decision etc is a reconstruction of reality 
  • It is impossible to truly ‘document reality’. Yet Polley in SWT accepts this conceit from the very beginning.


Grierson - “I want to make drama out of the ordinary”

  • This acknowledges that the ordinary is not interesting, and therefore documentaries provide the spectator with an escape from reality, back in to a new and constructed reality. This highly postmodern form therefore also acknowledges that the fake is more more real and more inviting than 'reality'

Stories We Tell


  • SWT presents a highly subjective and deliberately confusing narrative that frequently breaks the rules of film, such as confusing diegesis, presenting a deliberately confusing and contradictory narrative, and breaking the fourth wall by showing cast and crew. 
  • Even more controversial, Polley reconstructs family videos, shot on Super 8 with actors acting as younger versions of Polley’s family. This deliberately subjective, misleading and confusing technique is further anchored through the use of cross cutting between staged ‘archive’ footage, and ‘documentary’ footage, featuring talking heads of Polley’s extended family further elaborating on events .
  • While one interpretation is that these techniques alienate the audience, in fact the preferred reading is that actually Polley is drawing attention to the humanity of her ‘characters’, and the nature of subjectivity 
  • Ultimately, the film presents a Quixotic structure that encourages active readings, and positions the audience in a delightful mode of address 
  • In the scene in which Michael discusses Dianne’s abortion, a range of highly expressive techniques are used to position the spectator in a highly emotional mode of address. 
  • The MES of super-8 footage, through it’s flickering and characteristic ywllow glow, constructs a highly nostalgic mode of address that the audience have no right to feel. This concept of nostalgia is a hyperreal construct, and is based on a collective understanding of a combination of Hollywood narratives
  • The use of super-8 footage, and the cross cutting between this and voyeuristic mid shots of Michael, sitting in his own kitchen, directly addressing the camera. His costume is relaxed and relatable, and his status as a vulnerable human is further anchored through the MES f the ashtray placed haphazardly on the desk, the stack of messy paperwork, and the bottles of alcohol completing the richness of the setting.