Stories for tomorrow, documented today.
Life Stories
A personal documentary about a person and their story. Private by default.
The trailer
Forty-six seconds on what a Life Story looks like. What we make for a family stays with that family — unless they decide otherwise.
Why now
Photographs survive. Voices usually do not.
Almost every family has boxes of pictures and not one recording of how someone told a story — the pauses, the dialect, the laugh in the middle of the sentence.
Life Stories records that while it is still possible. We sit down, ask the questions that often go unasked and turn the material into a film you can return to years from now.
Privacy
What is missing here is deliberate.
This page shows almost no Life Stories. The films belong to the people who commissioned them, and that is where they stay.
Private is the default
Not an option you have to ask for. Without a release, no frame and no recording leaves that circle.
Nothing without written permission
No clip, no passage, no still — not even for our own portfolio.
The person sets the pace
Shorter sittings, breaks, and a stop when it is enough for that day. Anyone who does not want to be filmed is not filmed.
You can change your mind
A release can be withdrawn. We then take the material off our own channels.
Who it is for
There is no right moment. Only the one still available.
A life story can be recorded at any point along it — near the end, in the middle, or early on.
Grandparents
While they can still tell it
The dialect, the pauses, the laugh in the middle of the sentence. None of that is in a photo album.
Parents
What they want to leave their children
Not only at the end of a life, but whenever someone has something to say and the time to say it.
Mid-life
For later, and for your own children
How things are right now, recorded before they change. You watch it yourself in twenty years — or someone else does.
Possible deliverables
Recorded calmly, at a pace that suits the person.
01
The interview
The interview can be recorded across several sittings, often at home. We prepare the questions with the family and leave time for the answers.
02
Your archive, digitised
Old photographs, letters, slides and Super 8 can be digitised at high resolution and woven into the film. The agreed digital copies are delivered separately as well.
03
The film
Chaptered by chapter of their life, with clean sound and subtitles. Made to be watched together in a living room.
04
A short version
A shorter cut for a birthday, an anniversary or a funeral. Different occasions need different lengths.
05
Kept safe, kept private
Delivered on a drive and a private link, with the full unedited interview where agreed. Nothing is published without the required written permission.
How long the recording and the film run is agreed with the family and written into the offer.
How it works
From first conversation to the film
01
First conversation
Usually with the children or grandchildren. Who the film is for, and what must not be lost.
02
Preparation
We write the questions, look through the family archive and agree what stays private.
03
Recording
One or two calm days at home. Small camera, two microphones, breaks whenever they are needed.
04
Edit
Usually a few weeks, agreed with you, with one round of family feedback before the film is finished.
05
Handover
A drive, a private link and the raw interview, where agreed, handed over for the family to keep.
Example scopes
If someone is frail or unwell, tell us early. Where possible, we prioritise the recording date.
One day
A single interview day
One guided conversation, plus a few hours alongside the person for the footage around it. That becomes a film.
Possible elements:
- One recording day
- Interview and footage around it
- Archive scans
Several voices
Family chronicle
Two or three family members, recorded over more than one day. Several perspectives on the same history.
Possible elements:
- More than one recording day
- A longer film
- Short version
Extended
Legacy edition
Followed across months or years — people, places and what changes in between. A printed photo book can be part of it.
Possible elements:
- Visits across months and years
- Chaptered film
- Printed book
Before we start
Yes. Private is the default, not an option you have to ask for. Most Life Stories never appear on this website, and nothing is shown anywhere without written permission from the family.
Tell us as early as possible. We plan shorter sittings, allow for breaks and stop when the person has had enough for that day.
Then we do not film them. An audio-led version can be an alternative: their voice over photographs, objects and the rooms they live in.
German or English, and dialect is welcome because it is part of the person. German and English subtitles can be included if agreed.
Let's start with a conversation.
Tell us whose story it is and roughly where they live. Both of us read it, and you hear back from one of us.
❯❯ Get in touch ❮❮Or write directly — team@vznbrothers.com