Based on a True Story

Big Eyes (2014) directed by Tim Burton The final film in our series is Big Eyes, which portrays the story of the painter Margaret Keane, who passed away a few months ago at the age of 94. This film is the most conventional of the three films. The film has no talking heads to comment on the actio

Bernie (2011) directed by Richard Linklater Screened on September 14, 2022 Our discussion of this film mostly focused on the use of the interviews which comment on the action. The fact that the supposedly documentary interviews are a mixture of real people and actors portraying real people itsel

Stories We Tell (2012) directed by Sarah Polley In this film, Sarah Polley "interrogates" (her word) her father, her siblings, and others who knew her mother in an attempt to uncover the truth among the contradictory stories they tell about themselves, especially the relationship between Polley'

The theme for the series is "Based on a True Story." All three films -- Bernie, Stories We Tell, and Big Eyes -- purport in some way to be telling the truth, each using different cinematic techniques to do so. One question this series intends to ask is what obligation filmmakers have to stick to