Independent Films, Film Profiles

Stephanie Daley

Stephanie Daley — retitled What She Knew for US television — is an award-winning 2006 film starring Amber Tamblyn, Melissa Leo, Tilda Swinton and Timothy Hutton. The film, scheduled for a limited release in North America on April 20, 2007, focuses on the issue of teenage pregnancy. Stephanie Daley was developed at the Sundance Writers' and Filmmakers' Lab, and premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. The film also earned Tamblyn a nomination for best supporting female at the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards[2] and the Leopard prize for best actress at the 2006 Locarno film festival.[3]Sixteen-year-old Stephanie Daley collapses in a pool of blood while on a school skiing trip. A doctor discovers that the blood is the after-effects of giving birth. Soon afterward, the body of a newborn baby is found in a toilet, its mouth blocked with toilet paper. Despite Stephanie's insistence that her child was stillborn and that she had no idea that she was pregnant, she is arrested for the murder of the child.Awaiting trial, Stephanie is interviewed by a psychologist, Lydie Crane. Her husband is having an affair; their marriage has been on the rocks since she gave birth to a stillborn child. As Stephanie discusses her sexual history and her relationship with her parents and her child, Lydie is forced to face her hitherto buried emotions about her own child.