Sarah Polley has two babies.
One is the tiny, gurgling human one the Canadian actress-writer-director gave birth to almost a year ago, who she only takes quick breaks from. The other one is her debut documentary Stories We Tell, which she directed about a soul-baring family secret: that she’s the result of an affair her mother, actress Diane Polley, who passed away when she was 11, had during her marriage.
The emotional movie, filled with interviews with family members and bright, charming archival footage of her lookalike mom, premiered to brilliant reviews at film festivals last year in Venice, Telluride, and Toronto, and makes its debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, which runs Jan. 17-27. It hits theaters this coming May, distributed by Roadside Attractions, already gaining Oscar buzz for 2014.
Polley herself has already proven to be a talented and nuanced writer-director with feature films Take This Waltz and Away From Her, an adaption of an Alice Munro story starring Julie Christie, which snagged Polley a screenwriting Oscar nod in 2008. Ahead of Sundance, during a break from writing and being with her baby daughter, Polley chatted with EW about the movie’s impact and it being, according to her, “the most important film personally I’ll ever make.”
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