I didn’t know what to expect when beginning Sarah Polley’s The Stories We Tell. What began as a simple look into the life of a family, became so much more. Through her film, the audience was given intimate insight into the most secret part of family life, the skeleton’s in  the closet if you will. The Polley family was left raw and exposed under the eye of the viewer, who by the end of the film was still wondering if they had in fact gotten the entire story. The theme of “what is the truth” or “who holds the actual truth” was central to this film.

Polley introduces the audience to so many different characters from the start of the documentary, it makes it difficult for the audience to keep straight who is who exactly. We are introduced to family, friends, friends of friends, acquaintances publishers and some folks who…we aren’t quite sure what role they play. Each of them are retelling the same story, that of Sarah’s mother Diane, from their own perspective. Not one character has the same tale to tell. Rather they each put their own personal spin on how they remember things. We see the children of Diane, Sarah’s brothers and sisters, reaching far back into their memories, attempting to recall how exactly things went. At one point, Harry Gulkin, Polley’s biological father and a documentary creator himself, mentioned that he was not a fan of Polley’s desire to represent all view points of those involved in her dramatic story. He stated that this would compromise the truth, that in fact the real truth would never be revealed because of too many conflicting accounts. However, I believe that though Gulkin makes this assumption, Polley’s method of recording the story of everyone she knew, reveals more of the truth than simply depicting the point of view of only one individual.

By using this style, Polley is allowing the audience to see her mother’s story from all angles. From that of a child, an abandoned husband, a tortured lover and confused family and friends. Contrary to Gulkin’s claim, the way Polley constructs her film leaves little room for bias. Stories We Tell would have been a much different film if it only shared the story of scorned lover Gulkin. Everyone has a chance to retell it the way they remember, giving the audience a more encompassing view of the dysfunctional family life of Diane. From my vantage point, this is a more accurate depiction of “the truth”, than simply a single person documentary.

While there are many different modes of documentary film making, two of the most prominent modes discussed by Bill Nichols are the Participatory Mode and the Reflexive Mode. The Participatory Mode “welcomes direct engagement between film maker and subject.” It leaves room for the literal personal voice of the film-maker, who can exercise this ability to persuade the audience, provide context and even establish an easily identifiable tone for the viewer. In contrast, The Reflexive Mode “acknowledges the constructed nature of the documentary and flaunts it- conveying to people that this is not necessarily ‘truth’ but a reconstruction of it- not the truth but a truth.” Different films we have watched as a class this semester embody both these types of film making.

Ross McElwee’s film Photographic Memory is a great example of the Participatory mode. in this film, McElwee becomes both film-maker and subject. The documentary is about McElwee’s personal relationship with his teenage son, as well as his own journey into his past. The reason this film is such a perfect example of the participatory mode is that the audience is not only privy to the observational aspect of McElwee’s family life, but actually sees him playing the active role of father and film-maker. McElwee uses narration throughout the film to establish tone and context. he often describes his personal feelings towards his own family as he shares his opinions of his father, son and daughter. By doing so, the audience gains deep insight into the perspective of the director rather than simply looking at the family through the lens of a camera. The film becomes much more personal than if we were simply watching an outsider film the day to day life of McElwee, the emotional aspect of the film would be much less intimate.

In contrast, the Reflexive mode of documentary focuses on the constructed nature of the documentary. One of the films that can fall under the reflexive category is Nanook of the North by Robert Flaherty. This film retells the tale of Nanook an Eskimo. In the film Flaherty portrays the arctic lifestyle by means of various scenes concerning Nanook , his family and his hunt for film. While not explicitly stated, though, the entire film can be said to be a creation of Flattery’s vivid imagination – a truth but not the truth. This is due to many different artificially created elements such as staged scenes depicting Eskimo life as sweet and fanciful. Flaherty focuses primarily on the entertaining parts of the story, rather than exposing the entire truth. The Eskimo’s name is not even Nanook, and in fact he met a much grimmer fate than shown on camera. What the audience saw was an adorable depiction of an almost fantasy foreign lifestyle, rather than reality: this is a man who daily struggles to provide for his family. Instead the audience becomes endeared to a cute little Eskimo man, and is left with a less than honest interpretation of their true lifestyle. Instead of objectively portraying native life, the film served Flaherty’s  main purpose of entertaining.

While this is not the case in all Reflexive films, all of them are not so blatantly orchestrated as Nanook, most of them do rely on some form of constructed effort in order to make a point. But these films, like participatory films, use this as a means of garnering a particular response from the audience, whether it be emotional or a call to action.