TIFF and CRFF Celebrate Canada’s 150th With Free Film

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In celebration of Canada’s 150th Birthday, Toronto International Film Festival and the Campbell River Festival of Film present Stories We Tell, part of the Canada On Screen initiative.

Since acclaimed Canadian actor Sarah Polley first revealed her remarkable talents as a writer and director many years ago, audiences have come to expect the aesthetic rigour and reserved yet deeply felt emotion she brings to her studies of human relationships. In her first two features, Away From Her and Take This Waltz, she rendered the complexities of intimacy and desire with the eloquence and control of filmmakers with far more experience.  Away From Her in particular asked questions about how we can know ourselves or assess our lives if we can’t agree on the events of the past. Memory is truth — at least emotional truth. And nowhere in life are shared memories more fiercely contested than in the family.

Stories We Tell, Polley’s maiden voyage into the world of documentary, is at heart a personal essay on the intractable subjects of truth and memory. Using a combination of archival footage, still photos, and testimonials in a captivating visual assemblage, Polley examines the disagreements and varying narratives of a single family as they look back on decades-old events.

The responses from the “storytellers” chosen to share their version of things are heartfelt, revealing, and even charmingly funny. The result is a lively and richly textured documentary that seamlessly blends past and present, the real and the imagined. Devoid of sensationalism and lead with tender and powerful moments, the film also serves as a loving homage to one key player who is no longer here to share her version.

TIFF Film Circuit is excited to partner with REEL CANADA’s National Canadian Film Day 150 on April 19th to present over 150 free screenings across Canada. Film titles have been be chosen from the Canada on Screen list of essential moving-image works, part of TIFF’s free year-long programme celebrating Canada 150.

Canada on Screen is a co-production between TIFF and three core project partners — Library and Archives Canada, the Cinémathèque québécoise, and The Cinematheque in Vancouver. Canada on Screen is made possible by Presenting Partners the Government of Canada, the Royal Bank of Canada and the Government of Ontario, and Supporting Partner Telefilm Canada. National Canadian Film Day 150 is presented by REEL CANADA. Screens at Select Cineplex Locations have been generously donated by Cineplex.

Tickets are free of charge, we ask that you contact the box office to reserve your seats. First come, first served. Limit 4 tickets per household. Please indicate at the time of reservation if you will need wheelchair seating.

Please join us before the film for the Carihi and Timberline Student Art Reception.