subject: Family Documentary: The Legacy That Keeps On Giving [print this page] Wondering what you will leave behind from your life that really matters? The question of legacy is an important one. More and more people are realizing that family stories and memories passed along from one generation to the next, are priceless in a unique and vital way. One such way to leave a legacy for tomorrow, is by making a family documentary today.
A family documentary, or a personal documentary, breathes life into a family tree. Sensitively and professionally conducted interviews are filmed and then edited together with family photographs, current events from by-gone eras, passages from letters, diaries, maps, or whatever memorabilia is available. The result is a living legacy of story, continuity, and a sense of belonging for those who come next.
Here are just a few of the ways that family documentary makes a lasting difference:
When children, grandchildren, and even beyond, see a parent, grandparent, or other ancestor as a child, it helps them connect on a more personal level.
While history lessons in school can be boring, they may take on a whole new meaning when the stories of family members are brought to life in the details of first-hand experiences like war, depression, or big cultural movements. Who remembers Woodstock, or when women got the vote?
In every lifetime there are moments of adventure, challenge, humor, surprise, and creativity that go into living and aging. Remembered, retold, and passed along, these memories are often some of the most precious things a family can lay claim to.
Want to keep storytelling alive after you are gone? Leaving a family documentary is a great way to ensure that will happen.
When family stories and memories are not passed from one generation to the next, they become lost. Even while names and dates can be retrieved from public records, the personality, quirks, everyday achievements, sorrows, hilarity, and life lessons that make up the intimacy of family experience, only survive in the stories that are passed from one generation to the next.
A family documentary does more than preserve an important part of the family history; it can make the difference in whether future generations will continue the tradition of storytelling and documentation themselves.
Some might even say that, unlike other kinds of legacy gifts, a family documentary actually increases in value as the years and generations go by.
Such a legacy really can make a difference for generations to come.
