Sarah Polley has grown up to be a great actress and a filmmaker in her own right. Her documentary THE STORIES WE TELL is very insightful and subtle where it cou

Sarah Polley has grown up to be a great actress and a filmmaker in her own right. Her documentary THE STORIES WE TELL is very insightful and subtle where it could have been exploitative and self-indulgent. In a way, it's thematically related to this exchange- Family, the way people remember things, the way our stories of our lives may not match reality and how that may not matter in terms of our own experience. It's interesting she doesn't blame Gilliam for her experience, at least not now. I tend to agree to some extent, though I also think he has some responsibility. She's right to place some blame at her parents' feet. In the end, protecting her is 100% their job. Gilliam has some responsibility, it is after all his set. But the film industry is aware that directors can't always be trusted to balance their conflicting goals the way they should, and the 1st Assistant Director on a set is explicitly in charge of set safety. They're there to rein in a director who may be going too far. Tough job, but it's only one of the ways a 1st AD has to steer directors sometimes. And ultimately, the producers are responsible for everything, period. There's a reason the producers are the ones who accept Best Picture Oscars, and their ultimate responsibility for a film and everything that happens in the course of it is why. In the recent MIDNIGHT RIDER case, where a film crew member was killed by a train while shooting a stupidly dangerous scene while trespassing, the director, 1st AD, and the producer were all charged with manslaughter. The director and 1st AD have pled guilty, the producer had charges dropped. Looking into it now, I see the producer was the director's wife, and the court may have dropped her charges in consideration of their children, as long as the director agreed to plead guilty.