Stories We Tell is a fascinating study into the connections between truth and memory. I find it so interesting that Sarah was such an important presence in the film without ever speaking directly to the audience. In class we talked about an illusion of “unauthority” – by removing direct communication, Sarah makes it seem like she is less of a mediator than she actually is. This was effective, at least for me; I didn’t actually think about the implications of the fact that Sarah had edited and written the film herself until one of her interviewees brought it up. Still, I find that the film is very honest about the consequences of these layers of mediation around the story of Diane. The fact that Sarah made a point to address these issues helps the film to seem like that much more of an honest attempt at understanding storytelling and the effects of time and memory.

I keep thinking about what Harry said regarding the comprehensive “truth” of the piece. At one point in the film he expressed to Sarah his anxieties about the film never “touching bottom”. That is, he was worried that the story of Diane would be told by so many people that no real Truth could be exposed through the action of telling. I can understand his perspective; after all, no all-inclusive Truth regarding Diane is exposed through the telling of this story. There are still questions and uncertainties regarding how she really felt.  However, I think the film conveys truth in other ways. As a consumer of the film, I see the value in interviewing multiple people about Diane. I was struck by how effectively Stories We Tell conveys the notion that the same story can mean different things to different people. Although some details of the story changed from person to person, each interviewee was in some way affected by Diane and how the story of her affair unfolded. I think this idea of subjective truth is important to understand at when studying the action of storytelling. It must be recognized that the same story can affect people in entirely different ways; meaning will be found in varying parts of a memory, depending on the person. Harry put importance on the fact that Diane loved him, whereas other interviewees put more importance on the fact that Harry loved Diane. Was it better for her that she loved, or that she was loved? Or was she always in love with Michael, as one interviewee suggested? Listening to different versions of the same story may make it difficult to get at the “Truth”, but it also reveals the richness of meaning that can be derived from shared memory.