"When I watch the black-and-white footage of my mother auditioning, staring out into the audience, I feel maternal about her," Sarah says. Her documentary film Stories We Tell premiered at the 69th Venice International Film Festival in competition in the Venice Days category, and its North American premiere followed at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. She cast Jonathon Crombie in his first role, in the widely watched miniseries Anne of Green Gables. "I remember we talked about how you didn't look like Dad," a sister says. The film mixes Super 8 home-movie footage and convincing reconstructions also shot in Super 8 Diane is played by Rebecca Jenkins (who knew her in life). Stories We Tell, written and directed by Sarah Polley, is a film of the life and subsequent loss of her mother, the Canadian actress and casting director Diane Polley. [3] She first garnered attention as a child actress for her role as Ramona Quimby in the television series Ramona, based on Beverly Cleary's books. Polley wrote and directed her second feature, Take This Waltz starring Michelle Williams, Luke Kirby, Seth Rogen, and Sarah Silverman, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. The author Margaret Atwood, a longtime friend who also read drafts of Run Towards the Danger, said that she has seen Polley strive for greater honesty in her work and in her life. what type of cancer did diane polley die from That only gets enhanced when her brothers and sisters drop one story on Sarah they might not tell someone else. Before she had the idea of the film, Polley said, I wasnt interested in exposing myself. Sarah Polley at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills. She emerges as a woman who had the gallantry to treat life like a party even when it did not return the compliment. [24], Polley appeared as Lily on the CBC television series Straight Up. (Polley said that she is still editing Women Talking and that she completed its production last summer without a single headache: If I could get through that with three small children, I think its a pretty hopeful prognosis.). Copyright 2023 St. Joseph Communications. Diane Polley was born on 31 August 1936 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. There was nothing I felt uncomfortable asking. Diane Polley was a Canadian actor and casting director. [7] In 2022 she wrote and directed the film Women Talking earning her second Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination. She was dissuaded by family and friends from coming forward with her experiences, but ultimately chose to do so in her autobiographical essay collection Run Towards the Danger. But let's start from the film's beginning. Sarah Polley grew up the fifth of five children in a Canadian theatrical family. In 1995, she lost two back teeth after being struck by a riot police officer during a protest against the provincial Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris in Queen's Park. She encourages her family to speak. As she grew up in Toronto under the care of her father, Michael, Polleys conception of her mother was fuzzily constructed from memories, photographs and family stories. I realized Ive gone to all this trouble and people are going to read the story before they see the film anyway. Polley discovered as an adult that her biological father was actually Harry Gulkin, with whom her mother had an affair (as chronicled in Polley's film Stories We Tell). Genealogy profile for Diane Elizabeth Polley. She also peels back the filmmaking process, filming set-up shots and voice-over sessions while obfuscating other details, particularly her personal response to the shocking revelation. During the making of the film, her sisters also divorced their spouses.) Ten short years later she discovered the secret that her mother had kept hidden all Sarahs life, Michael Polley was not her father. Copyright 2023 Elsevier Inc. except certain content provided by third parties. [5] [11], Polley was raised by Diane and Michael. Polley is hardly a novice when it comes to untangling knotty personal narratives in front of an audience. In 1996, she gave a nomination speech for Kormos at the ONDP leadership convention which she later referred to as the "proudest moment in [her] life".[48]. It drew rave reviews from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and the three Toronto dailies, both for the performances of Christie and her co-star, Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent, and for Polley's direction. [4] Polley's second film, Take This Waltz (2011), premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival,[5] followed by her first documentary film, Stories We Tell (2012). "Diane Polley, 54 was actress, talent agent", http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/471412111.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jan+11%2C+1990&author=Sid+Adilman+Toronto+Star&pub=Toronto+Star&desc=Diane+Polley%2C+54+was+actress%2C+talent+agent&pqatl=google, "Sarah Polley recalls her own sorrow with new role in `My LIfe'", http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/bostonherald/access/421326461.html?dids=421326461:421326461&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Oct+09%2C+2003&author=Stephen+Schaefer&pub=Boston+Herald&desc=MOVIES%3B+Sarah+Polley+recalls+her+own+sorrow+with+new+role+in+%60My+LIfe%27&pqatl=google, "Sarah Polley popolnoma zaljubljena v igro [Sarah Polley completely in love with the game]", http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.siol.net%2Ftv%2Fzanimivosti%2F2011%2F04%2Fsarah_polley.aspx&date=2012-10-12, "Loretta says it's genetics that make her look younger", http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/470726331.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+17%2C+1989&author=Rita+Zekas+Toronto+Star&pub=Toronto+Star&desc=Loretta+says+it%27s+genetics+that+make+her+look+younger&pqatl=google, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0689568/filmotype, http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=15IuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UqEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2842,1622127&dq=diane-polley&hl=en, "'Anne of Green Gables' star Jonathan Crombie dies at age 48", http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/anne-of-green-gables-star-jonathan-crombie-dies-at-age-48-1.2333898, "'Anne of Green Gables' Star Jonathan Crombie dies at 48", http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jonathan-crombie-dead-anne-green-789940, "Sarah Polleys new film reveals her secret parentage", http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/sarah-polleys-new-film-reveals-her-secret-parentage/article4508957/, http://en.wikialpha.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Diane_Polley&oldid=160918. The thing that will get you better is moving towards the things youre avoiding, she said. Polley was in the midst of another film project, an adaptation of Miriam Toewss novel Women Talking that she wrote and directed, when the pandemic forced its temporary suspension. [17] She was awarded the CAN$100,000 prize for best Canadian film of the year by the Toronto Film Critics Association. I think its a lot to absorb and kinda difficult.. She made her acting debut aged four and is critical of the way child actors are treated. In her new essay collection, Run Towards the Danger, the actress and filmmaker examines intensely personal stories shes still sorting out for herself. Rated PG-13 for thematic elements involving sexuality, brief strong language and smoking. Sarah Polley, center, was 8 when she played Sally Salt in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen., Columbia Pictures, via Everett Collection, Polley in a scene from her 2012 documentary Stories We Tell., I thrive on too-intimate conversations with people, Polley said. The series premiered in 2017 on CBC Television in Canada; it streams on Netflix globally, outside of Canada. Helen McCrory: Peaky Blinders actress dies aged 52, husband - BBC Please enter a term before submitting your search. ", Whatever the friendly difference of opinion about wedlock, the remarkable thing is that when pressed about her family's reaction to Stories We Tell, Sarah reveals that everyone is happy with the film and has been "supportive". Feb. 17, 2022. Gulkin says he was utterly besotted, and after she gave birth to Sarah, at 42, we remained in love for a very long time.. And as her family secret leaked out, she kept it from the public for another five years, convincing journalists not to report it because this was a story she wanted exclusive rights to. She was previously married to Michael Polley and George Deans-Buchan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(13)70470-4, We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content and ads. He is hilarious in the process, claiming: "A night with a dead wombat might be more exciting than a night with me after 12 years.". Diane Polley Diane was Sarah's mother and unfortunately passed away from cancer in 1990. She sat in a brightly lit room, undaunted by the prospect of staring into a computer monitor for an hour or so and putting herself under a microscope. Another friend, Mort Ransen, speaks of her fear of cancer and likens her to a trembling bird. Its different if somebody else is indiscreet about you.. And my biological father was also writing about it. Diane Kucera stands in her usual spot behind the sleek, Toronto, Toronto Division, Ontario, Canada (cancer) Place of Burial: Toronto, Toronto Division, ON, Canada: Immediate Family: . She is nervous (biting her lower lip) and vulnerable (apologising for fluffing the song's last line). Polley burst into the public eye in 1990 as Sara Stanley on the popular CBC television series Road to Avonlea. . (Polley divorced her first husband in 2008 and remarried in 2011. Michael Polley was jolted into restarting a long-dormant writing career, penning nearly 80 pages of copy with details of the story from his perspective. But now she has unveiled the puzzle of her parentage in an enthralling documentary, Stories We Tell, which premiered at festivals in Venice and Toronto to the acclaim of critics. Goes Out newsletter, with the week's best events, to help you explore and experience our city. She used existing footage from home Super 8 movies and old photographs with confessional interviews from her brothers and sisters. The revelation sent Polley reeling: If her father was not her father, then who was her mother, and what did that mean about her own identity? This family consists of Sarah's sister Susy (51), a thoughtful GP, and her brother John (50), a winningly camp casting director the children of Sarah's mother's first marriage Mark (45), a delightful lawyer, and Joanna (41), an attractive teacher with a PhD in philosophy. That was such a relief, said Polley, whose next project is adapting Margaret Atwoods Alias Grace. This was something that compelled me. Diane Polley - Biography - IMDb You know her pale face and her red hair turning brown and blonde . During her childhood, the case had understandably been "underplayed". He tried hard and, to some extent, rallied. Director Atom Egoyan, who cast Polley in The Sweet Hereafter and has remained close to the actress, said he was astounded by her progress as a director. Sarah sees her as "exposed" here and elsewhere. Two days after her 11th birthday, Sarah Polley lost her mother to cancer. Sarah Ellen Polley OC (born January 8, 1979) is a Canadian filmmaker, political activist and retired actress. Mum was adventuresome but trapped, says a kid, dutiful but wild, says a confidant, talented (maybe) and unfulfilled (sometimes) and by many accounts a shy extrovert. Sarah Polley says the affair was confirmed by a journalist who confronted her over keeping it a secret. Sarah now smarts on her mother's behalf to think of the "shame" she must have felt. "I oscillate between being watchful and out of control." Home Movies - Bright Wall/Dark Room Run Towards the Danger is out next month. Last years Telluride and Toronto film festivals elicited rave reviews for the documentary and Indiewire called it the finest of Polleys filmmaking skills and New York Magazine referred to Polley as a gifted actress and possibly more gifted writer-director. In 2008, Polley appeared as Nabby Adams in the HBO miniseries based on the life of John Adams. She took care of us brilliantly. She was previously married to Michael Polley and George Deans-Buchan. But its kind of exhilarating, realizing that whatever story youve been telling about yourself and everyone tells those stories isnt you. Where did the reddish hair come from? At 15, she moved in with a boyfriend and, at 16, she was living on her own with "lots of rotting potatoes under the sink and a lack of life skills". "I felt closer to you than I ever felt about the other children," he tells her, explaining that he'd always shared her siblings' attention with their mom. In fact, there was even speculation that their actress mother Diane, who died of cancer before Polley hit her teen years, had had an affair with an actor who she was appearing with in a play in Montreal. [32] In August 2014, during a profile of her work as a director, Polley announced that Alias Grace was being adapted into a six-part miniseries. To update your cookie settings, please visit the Cookie Preference Center for this site. Sarah Polley: 'Stories are our way of coping, of creating shape out of The filmmaker realized this was something worthy of more detailed exploration and a documentary was born. But Sarah Polley, a professional performer from childhood, blossomed into a fine young actress: in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter , David Cronenberg's eX istenZ , Kathryn Bigelow's The Weight of Water . I dont have this need for secrecy around almost every part of my life.. Her film may be her story but she gets others to tell it. It was at this time that she famously got "roughed up" by riot police protesting at a conservative government cutting welfare benefits and lost two back teeth. And now, on an overcast, humid morning, I am hurrying to meet her in downtown Toronto, through streets that seem a cross between Dalston and Cape Cod. "I remember Johnny saying [that] your father might be someone that Mum had acted with in a play," one brother observes. Polley's mom died in 1990 of cancer, and her father remembers bonding then with his youngest daughter. . Get our L.A. Everything about her, including her handshake, has a lightness of touch like her work. [60], On August 23, 2011, Polley married David Sandomierski, who at the time was working on his SJD degree (equivalent to a PhD in law) at the University of Toronto, which he would complete six years later, in 2017. The only thing that somewhat assuaged that anxiety was the support of the National Film Board of Canada, which financed the $1.7-million film. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Polley played Elise in Jaco Van Dormael's Mr. Nobody, which was released in 2010. The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia, The Lancet Regional Health Western Pacific, Transparency in reporting clinical trials, Access any 5 articles from the Lancet Family of journals, We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content and ads. In 2011, her second film, Take This Waltz a love story starring Michelle Williams split opinion (I loved it; Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian could barely contain his contempt). Sarah Polleys biological father also took to the computer, creating his own narrative of the events that eventually led him to reveal his identity to her in Montreal. At nine, her role in the Canadian television series Road to Avonlea made her name and enough money with which, much later, to think about making a film. At age eight, she was cast as Ramona Quimby in the television series Ramona, based on Beverly Cleary's books. The long slog gave Polley the chance to fill in many blanks about her mysterious matriarch. Polley has written numerous essays over the years about her experiences as a child star. Polley takes a similar route in her documentary film journey. Michael Polley - Biography - IMDb Type; Trigger: 2010: Hillary . . This rock star of "Two Tickets to Paradise" fame learned he had esophageal cancer after a routine checkup. Herself a well-established actor, writer, and director in her native Canada, Sarah was nominated for an Oscar for her writing for the 2006 film Away From Her, which she also directed. And I think the ship bearing my chance at a normal childhood/transition to adulthood had sailed long before I met Atom.). Michael Polley is the Anglo-Canadian actor best known for his connection to the actress-director Sarah Polley, the offspring of his late wife, Diane Polley.Michael Polley was born in England in 1933 and studied acting during the 1950s; one of his classmates was Albert Finney, who compared the profession of acting to that of bricklaying. They divorced five years later, in 2008. The series made her famous and financially independent, and she was hailed as "Canada's Sweetheart" by the popular press. Memory is not a convenient barn in which truth can be stored through successive winters. Critics have responded to Stories We Tell as a significant step in Polleys evolution as a filmmaker. Diane MacMillan Polley, a Canadian actress and casting director, died of cancer in 1990, when her youngest daughter, Sarah, was 11. The death came as a shock, even though her father and older siblings had watched Diane Polley battle the disease for months. [35] In March 2015, Polley was hired to write the script for a new adaptation of Little Women, as well as potentially direct;[36] however, Polley's involvement in the project never went beyond initial discussions, despite reports. And now here it is: Cafe Diplomatico, Little Italy, nicknamed "the Dip", which has been open for business for 45 years a Toronto landmark. Club commented that Polley's decision to go into directing had "deprived the world of many potentially great performances", calling her a "superb actor".[41]. Send us photos of your parents or the people you think of as parents and see what's been sent in so far at GuardianWitness, When Sarah Polley decided to make a documentary about the mother she lost as a girl of 11, she had no idea of the extraordinary family secret she would unearth. [23] Polley ended her run early claiming complications from scoliosis. Sarah even found and filmed a newspaper cutting reporting on the case. My body went into shock and sickness, and every time Ive gone to Montreal since then, I get really sick, she said. But Michael Polley is the one who has to absorb the shock, and as he plunges into memoir-writingwhich Sarah has him record as voiceoverhe emerges as the more sympathetic of the two. She was an actress and casting director, known for Philip Marlowe, Private Eye (1983), Encounter (1952) and The Ray Bradbury Theater (1985). In 1999, Polley made her first short film, The Best Day of My Life,[20] for the On the Fly 4 Film Festival. Manipulating even as it exposes, Stories We Tell is a provocative, genre-bending documentary that examines how we construct personal narratives and shows Polley struggling with her own. Before marrying Michael Polley, she was front-page news when she left her first husband and became the first Canadian mother to lose custody of her children (Sarahs half-sister and brother). But being candid doesnt mean that you always know what the truth is. Meanwhile she divorced, remarried, raised a mutant child in the sci-fi horror film Splice, portrayed a depressed mother in Mr. Nobody, directed Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in Take This Waltz, and had a baby. Sarah grew up with a family joke that she did not look anything like her siblings. In 2022 she released her first book of essays, the autobiographical, Run Towards the Danger which detailed her experiences in film, TV and on stage. A director's discoveries about her parents in 'Stories We Tell' St. Joseph Communications uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. By Nicole Sperling, Los Angeles Times. The news also sent ripples through her extended family, with the story being told and examined from multiple points of view by her four older brothers and sisters, her uncle, her mothers friends and others. It is permeable, unreliable and personal. She was part of a group in 2001 which opposed the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. He'd speak to you with respect. A snap of Sarah and Michael shows them smiling alongside a tall snowman they had created: an image of playful togetherness. She also wrote the miniseries Alias Grace,[6] based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood. The revelation of Polleys true parentage landed her in bed for two weeks, ill with a long fever. There were other things she did not share with her siblings either. When actress turned writer/director/producer Sarah Polley learned at the age of 28 that her father Michael Polley was not her biologicalfather and that she was, instead, the product of an illicit love affair by her late mother Diane Polley, her world turned upside down. Youre not just borrowing from yourself youre putting yourself on the line.. "Some people say I am but I'm more restrained." She died of cancer the week of Polley's 11th birthday. Polley and her siblings found the story becoming the focus of many a dinner party, with each of them highlighting a different aspect of the tale as it related to their own history. George Bernard Shaw wrote: "If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance." Polley emigrated to Canada, settling in the Toronto . It was "easy" to interview her family, she says, because, "There are no taboos at our dinner table. [21] The show was picked up by the Disney Channel for distribution in the United States. You cant be an artist unless you put yourself into it. Roadside Attractions Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell : Secrets and Lies - TIME.com While Polley was recuperating from her concussion, Atwood said she held the rights to her novel Alias Grace a book that Polley first asked her if she could adapt when she was 17 so that she could complete a TV mini-series based on it. John Buchan, one of two children from Diane Polleys first marriage and a casting director for films, was a key participant, consulting on the movie and providing crucial pieces of information about the crux of the family secret. And she minds terribly is fearful "conservative" people will judge her mother censoriously. [22] The show ran until 1996; Polley did return as Sara Stanley for an episode in 1995 and for the series finale. Science fiction is really about now', "Netflix Nabs Sarah Polley Miniseries Based on Margaret Atwood True-Crime Novel", "Sarah Polley will adapt and direct John Green's 'Looking for Alaska', "Amy Pascal, Sarah Polley Team on 'Little Women' Remake at Sony (Exclusive)", "Why it's a perfect time for Greta Gerwig's version of 'Little Women', "Why Rebecca Thomas Directing John Green's 'Looking For Alaska' Is A Big Deal", "John Green Dodges Questions About Looking for Alaska Movie Replacement", "Putting Timothy Olyphant in a silly Santa hat only makes him more menacing", "Frances McDormand to Star in 'Women Talking' From Director Sarah Polley", "Telluride Unveils Lineup of Films to "Fight About", "https://deadline.com/2022/11/women-talking-christmas-release-date-rooney-mara-sarah-polley-1235175344/", https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/women_talking, "When a Single Conversation Can Mean Life or Death", "Nominating Peter Kormos for the Ontario NDP leadership was the proudest moment of my life", "Sarah Polley's new work gets Oscar debut", "Sarah Polley pulls her name from Heart and Stroke film over Becel sponsorship", "The matter with The Heart is product endorsement", "Sarah Polley strips name from Oscar short", "Sarah Polley picks Peggy Nash for NDP leader", "Sarah Polley: The Men You Meet Making Movies", "Sarah Polley makes only movies she'd see - from indies to zombie flicks", "Sarah Polley talks of her 'whole new level' of breastfeeding while screening latest film in Colorado", http://alumni2.westernu.ca/fam/western-law/2018/western-law-welcomes-new.html, "Sarah Polley breaks silence about traumatic encounter with Jian Ghomeshi", "2010 Inductees for The Canada Honours Announced", "NFB shorts: Stories Sarah Tells, Canadian Famous and Daniel Lanois", "Sarah Polley, Blue Rodeo founders join Order of Canada", "Sarah Polley named ACTRA's Woman of the Year", "Sarah Polley's 'Stories We Tell' wins Writers Guild award", Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress, Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Screenplay, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First Film, Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Breakthrough Filmmaker, San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Satellite Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sarah_Polley&oldid=1142761912, Best Actress Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners, Best Director Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners, Best First Feature Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners, Best Screenplay Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners, Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Canadian Screen Award winners, Canadian people of Russian-Jewish descent, Directors of Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners for Best Live Action Short Drama, Directors of Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners for Best Documentary Film, Governor General's Performing Arts Award winners, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Main role (seasons 15), guest (seasons 67), Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in 2007, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series, Best Performance in a Children's or Youth Program or Series, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series, Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega (2011), This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 06:30.