When watching the movie Stories We Tell I was struck by how the director Sarah Polley constructed a story using both real and counterfeit footage. She tricks the audience by stating that her father received an 8mm video camera. From then on, we are under the impression that all the footage is real. Although there was, from the start, questions in my mind about the authenticity of some of the shots I was viewing, I told myself even if it was faked it didn’t matter. I was more interested in staying caught up with the story unfolding in front of me. At the end of the movie she reveals to her audience that some of the footage is staged.  For me, it was an “ah ha!” moment that confirmed my suspicion.

The question is why did she do this? Is it because she is an actor? In her world, movies create an illusionary reality which can parallel actual experience? Does she blend the two because she is afraid the story itself will not capture the audience fully? I do not think so. I think, because there are moments like the funeral scene where the shot pans across the crowd, then focuses in on Harry staring at the camera from a distance. The moment is so constructed, it is impossible to not question the authenticity of the footage.  I think Sarah was not trying to trick her audience, I think she was combining real and faux footage to create the representation of how our memories work.

Memory can be false. It can warp over time like wood exposed to the elements. Time, for memories is a corrosive substance. Small details of a memory flake off as time goes by, and with longer periods the memory may lose its original shape. I can withdraw inside myself and open a chest inside my mind filled to the brink with memories from my childhood. I can pull them out like forgotten toys in an attic, and examine them.  Bits are so vivid, even after years and years of lifetime I can still smell, touch, taste, and hear certain aspects.  But none are whole.  I have used my imagination like glue, to keep them together; to fill in the cracks that threaten to widen and obliterate the memory.

And this is what I think Sarah Polley has done with the melding of real and fake footage. She has filled in the gaps. The staged footage is there as an adhesive to strengthen the story she is telling. The real footage can represent memory, faded and jagged. It has lost much of its substance, and viewing the footage just like remembering a memory can be difficult unless one fills in the blanks to solidify it. So Sarah used staged footage to congeal the story; to make it whole and fluid.  Just as I construct insignificant details within a memory to help make it real to me again.