The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom

20112011
TV-GTV-G
1h 35m

Elizabeth Alison Gray is just your average suburban eleven-year-old waiting for adolescence to arrive when she finds out her whole life has been a lie. With only her imagination to guide her... Read allElizabeth Alison Gray is just your average suburban eleven-year-old waiting for adolescence to arrive when she finds out her whole life has been a lie. With only her imagination to guide her, she runs away to find the truth.Elizabeth Alison Gray is just your average suburban eleven-year-old waiting for adolescence to arrive when she finds out her whole life has been a lie. With only her imagination to guide her, she runs away to find the truth.

6.3/10

583

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins & 2 nominations

Photos3

Stella Kowalski in The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom.

With Rebecca Windheim and Julia Sarah Stone in The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom

Add photo

It's 1976, and Elizabeth is just your average suburban eleven-year-old praying for adolescence to arrive when she discovers her whole life has been a lie. With only her imagination to guide her, Elizabeth runs away in search of her true identity. Her adoptive mother Marion is then forced to break out of the carefully constructed "truth", to which she's been clinging, and go after her daughter. This leads to a cathartic cross-country trek by a mother searching for a daughter who's searching for a mother, both of them really searching for themselves. This movie is a poignant, sometimes funny, very female, coming-of-age story that explores the tension between creating identity, and finding it within. —Palomar

f rated reference to dolly parton character name in title

Trivia
Emma Elle Paterson's debut.

Quotes
Marion: You made me into your mother, Elizabeth. And somewhere I think I've always been afraid that you could unmake me, too.

Soundtracks
The Seeker
Written by Dolly Parton
Published by Velvet Apple Music Inc.
Performed by Dolly Parton
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc.

Top review

10/10

Canadian Gem

This delightful new film is a tribute to Canadian talent! What a wonderful cast and we certainly hope to see more from writer/director Tara Johns - a Canadian gem! Set in the prairies one is delivered to the open scape of the imagination of a young girl who wishes her mother was fabulous Dolly Parton. As daughter and mother set out on routes of self-discovery, we are swept away with the emotions and beauty of a film that is both intimate and authentic. The set design and costumes are so detailed that those of us who lived in the seventies feel immediately at home. Vancouverite Julia Stone does an amazing job and Macha Grenon is breathtaking. It is an outstanding treatment of a tale of lost identity, and a must see film for all!

helpful•6