Her film “Women Talking” was nominated in the best screenplay and best film categories, a reward for this director who intends to prove that after “#MeeToo”, cinema can make its revolution, establish healthier work environments and at the same time time to come up with really great movies.
The Oscars, the high mass of American cinema will be held this Sunday, March 13 in Los Angeles, and the Canadian Sarah Polley, 44, is in the running for two prizes: best screenplay and best film. The director, however, wanted to take the field and no longer do cinema, she who began her career at 6 years old.
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In the 1980s, Sarah Polley was Canada’s darling, a bubbly blond head in multiple Disney movies and TV shows. She chained roles for thirty years, until moving on to directing, then quickly saying stop: too much pressure, too much stress. AT each film, the same refrain: shooting faster, getting three days in one, giving up family life for weeks.
Word to women
After her third child, Sarah Polley therefore closed the door. “I no longer wanted to be the one who disappears with each filmshe told People magazine, I could not continue to do this job and at the same time be present for my children” So she devoted herself to her family, to being there after school, at dinner, on weekends. Until the day when Frances Mc Dormand, the actress with three Oscars, star of nomadlandcame knocking on her door in 2019. She wanted her, Sarah Polley, to direct her film, women talkingthe feature film named this Sunday and which depicts, in a religious community, women who are abused, harassed, exploited by their husbands who decide to talk to each other, consult each other to make a decision and define what to do.
Adapted working days
Almost six years after the emergence of the “#MeeToo” movement, the idea speaks volumes. Sarah Polley therefore gave her consent, but only “if we adapt life on the set to the message of the film “: no tyrannical management, no shouting, no extended hours, no blackmailing the budget. What was done.
Before filming, the schedules were established according to the needs of each, actresses, actors, technical team: more breaks for some, the possibility of picking up the children at school for others, and overall reduced working days, in any case well below the standard 16 hours per day on film sets.
For this initiative, the weekly magazine People names Sarah Polley in its list of women who change the world. And that’s also what his double Oscar nomination rewards: “it’s proof that films aren’t sloppy, sabotaged, when you create a more human work environment. Quite the contrary.”