Sarah Polley finally has a film coming out this year. First there is a collection of Polley's essays called Run Towards the Danger. The essay collection will be out tomorrow on March 1.
What might be surprising is that the book only contains 6 essays. What the book lacks in quantity, the essays tackle huge topics such as the exploitation of child actors, slippery nature of memory, sexual assault, high-risk pregnancy and premature birth, grief, motherhood, and Polley’s 3-year recovery from a serious concussion.
One of the essays that got some notice is The Woman Who Stayed Silent. The essay is about an violent encounter with a then 16-year-old Polley and a then 28-year-old CBC Radio Q host Jian Ghomeshi. Polley felt “a deep, ethical obligation” to tell the story, according to a story in The New York Times.
The 3-year concussion recovery is a sad but understandable explanation for why she hasn't been too productive of late. The recovery reported forced Polley to pass on an adaptation of Little Women.
Sarah Polley on The Current (CBC Radio One)
“I’m a huge fan of personal essays; I just devour them. It’s a form that I love. And in my mind, any one of these essays could be a stand-alone essay. I think it’s inevitable that this book will be interpreted and written about as a memoir, and I’m sort of at peace with it, but it was certainly not the intention of the book,” Polley told Vanity Fair in an article.
Sarah Polley's writing stands out in her films so the idea of essays from Polley is that much more exciting. The writing styles are different.
Canadian film review: Alias Grace
Canadian film review: Stories We Tell
Canadian film review: Take This Waltz
Canadian film review: Away From Her
The Vanity Fair article has a Q&A where they ask Polley about a return to acting:
"The last time I acted was around 14 years ago and since then I hadn't had a second of wanting to act, but watching these women in Women Talking, it was the first time I'd felt this little hunger of how fun that can be."
Polley was the female lead in Splice in the 2009 film. She did have a brief appearance in Trigger (2010) but that was more out of camaraderie as the group was finishing one final film before Tracey Wright passed away in 2010.
The New York Times article goes more into Polley's acting career.
Take This Waltz showcases a real Toronto neighborhood
Relaxed nudity would make Canadian films stand out
Canadian film review: The Life Before This
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
We do know that Polley will be back on the screen with Women Talking sometime this year. The movie deals with the reaction of women isolated in a Mennonite religious colony in Bolivia after a string of sexual assaults.
The story is adapted from the novel of the same name from Miriam Toews, a rather popular Canadian writer of late. Michael McGowan adapted her novel All My Puny Sorrows for his film seen at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.
Academy Award winner Frances McDormand, current Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley, past Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara, Judith Ivey, and 2-time Emmy award winner Claire Foy lead the cast. Canadian actors Sheila McCarthy and August Winter (Mary Kills People) are high up on the callsheet.
photo credit: Trigger film
Comments