The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom


The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom is a 2011 Canadian coming-of-age film written and directed by Tara Johns and starring Macha Grenon, Gil Bellows, and Julia Sarah Stone. Dolly Parton provides a voice cameo.

Plot

Elizabeth lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1976. She is nearly 12, which Marion, her mother, points out “makes you still 11”. Elizabeth and her friend, Annabelle, are looking forward to their bodies maturing, including the possibility that they might get “big boobs” like Dolly Parton.
Her father, Phil, answers her questions about the family’s blood types for a school project. When the project is reviewed in her science class, it reveals that her blood type means that she is not her parents’ natural child. Elizabeth is angry and hurt, and soon dreams of the possibility of Dolly being her real mother.
Annabelle’s mother, Stella, who is active in the woman’s movement, admires Dolly as a strong independent business woman, which adds to Elizabeth’s fantasy.
Elizabeth tries to ride her bike to a Dolly concert in Minneapolis, but is stopped hours later at the Emerson border crossing. Marion drives to get her, and the two form a stronger connection over the next two days, as Marion takes her to Minneapolis to meet Dolly.

Awards

Streaming

On Dec 2019 the film was released online on the Canada Media Fund’s Encore + YouTube channel.