The source for this short film is a very short story, just six words, attributed to Ernest Hemingway. However, it's likely that Hemingway did not write the story, and that it has become attached to his name because of his famous brevity.
"The Things We Own Tell Stories" was made as part of the first The Hint Fiction Film Contest, in 2012. The contest drew from a 2010 anthology of extremely short fiction, Hint Fiction, by Robert Swartwood. This film placed in the top ten finalists and was shown at the Vail Film Festival.