Both Polley and the President are careful, nuanced thinkers. Polley's film is a stunning record of the unreliability of memory in our quest for truth. Peter Bradshaw, film critic for The Guardian, writes:
Stories We Tell is a cine-memoir of Polley's parents, the British-born actor Michael Polley and Canadian actor and casting director Diane Polley. Using Super-8 home-movie footage, faux Super-8 reconstructions, interviews with siblings and, crucially, a memoir written by Michael, Polley has created a portrait of a marriage that is full of enormous richness, tenderness and emotional complexity. Polley tackles painful issues with candour and tact. She has a gripping tale to tell. It's a film that raises questions about the ownership of memory and ownership of narrative... It is a work of some audacity, even effrontery, mixing pastiche Super 8 footage and faux home movies in with her genuine archive material, avowedly because the film is about the unreliability of memory and the consequent importance of democratising personal histories, allowing everyone to tell their stories and give their view. (see more @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/ filmblog/2013/jun/28/sarah-polley-stories-we-tell-film)
The President's confessional comments point to some of the ways the personal connects all of us to what is political - particulary when it comes to social oppression. In this morning's NY Times, the lead editorial noted that: President Obama did something Friday that he hardly ever does — and no other president could ever have done. He addressed the racial fault lines in the country by laying bare his personal anguish and experience in an effort to help white Americans understand why African-Americans reacted with frustration and anger to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. With clarity and compassion, he spoke of three private experiences that are all too common for black men in the United States.
There are, frankly, very few African-American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often. And I don't want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida... Trayvon Martin could have been me thirty five years ago.
As I took in both Polley's and the President's stories, I was struck by the importance both individuals gave to naming the broader context of time and culture that has shaped their stories - and the role others have played in helping them name the truth. And while they refused to be dogmatic about the implications of their own experiences, they were clear that these experiences have shaped them in life-changing ways, too.
Truth telling is hard - especially in a sentimental culture. I am grateful for artists like Sarah Polley - and deeply humbled and proud of my President - for finding ways of bringing heart, soul, body and mind together in public for the common good. Thanks be to God.
credit:
1)theylaughedatjulesverne.com
3 comments:
I just returned from a 5-day family reunion with our five children, their spouses and children, and our first great-grandchild. One thing that happened was that our granddaughter interviewed me for a couple of hours about my life, especially the first 20 years. Afterwards I wondered how much of what I told her, and believed to be true, was actually what had happened, and how much was a product of how my mind had reconstructed the events. Needless to say, listening to the interview in the blog makes me wonder all the more. I am eager to watch the movie, and I am grateful for the way you juxtaposed your reactions to the movie and to the President's profound comments on the court case. Thank you for doing this.
What struck us on watching Sarah's film was Michael Polley's abundant compassion and self-understanding. She is a national treasure to us in Canada.
Thank you both for your words of kindness and insight. Elmer when you see the film it will knock you out; very challenging and insightful but with such a generous spirit as Peter noted. Blessings to you both.
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