Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley

Sarah Polley's work as an actor, screenwriter, and director is celebrated for its honesty, complexity, and deep humanity. She brings all of those qualities along with her exquisite storytelling chops to these six essays.

Each one captures a piece of Polley's life as she remembers it, while at the same time examining the fallibility of memory, the mutability of reality in the mind, and the possibility of experiencing the past anew, as the person you are now but were not then. As Polley writes, the past and present are in a "reciprocal pressure dance."

Polley contemplates stories from her own life ranging from stage fright to high risk childbirth to endangerment and more. After struggling with the aftermath of a concussion, Polley met a specialist who gave her wholly new advice: to recover from a traumatic injury, she had to retrain her mind to strength by charging towards the very activities that triggered her symptoms.

With riveting clarity, she shows the power of applying that same advice to other areas of her life in order to find a path forward, a way through. Rather than live in a protective crouch, she had to run towards the danger.

In this extraordinary book, Sarah Polley explores what it is to live in one's body, in a constant state of becoming, learningand changing. (From Penguin Random House Canada)

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Sarah Polleyis an Oscar-nominatedCanadian actor, screenwriterand director.Her first feature-length film,Away from Her,was adapted fromthe Alice Munro storyThe Bear Came Over the Mountainand was nominated for the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay. Her other films includeStories We TellandTake This Waltz.

Interviews with Sarah Polley

Writers and Company1:14:22From child actor to award-winning filmmaker: Sarah Polley tells her own story in her powerful new book

From her beginnings as a young performer, to becoming an internationally acclaimed filmmaker herself, Sarah Polley has made bold, unusual choices in her work. Her first feature film, Away from Her, won multiple awards, while her personal documentary, Stories We Tell, was included in the Top Ten Canadian Films of All Time. Now shes published a powerful collection of personal essays called Run Towards the Danger. They probe some of the most difficult experiences she has faced.

Sarah Polley explores memory in new book

3 years ago

Duration 2:36

Toronto filmmaker Sarah Polley describes the process of writing her new collection of essays, Run Towards the Danger, and making deeply personal experiences public.

Sarah Polley speaks up: "It's not the time to be polite."

7 years ago

Duration 21:09

An extended cut of Polley's awe-inspiring interview on The Filmmakers.

16-year-old Sarah Polley talks about the pressure to lose your passion as you grow up

8 years ago

Duration 1:10

In 1995, a 16-year-old Sarah Polley shared about growing up fast, losing her passion, and creating space for excitement again.