The Life Chronicles

People often ask what we actually say when the camera turns on. The truth is, there’s no magic script — every person’s story is different. But over many interviews, a handful of questions have proven to open almost anyone up. Try them at your next family dinner. You may be surprised what comes out.

I had done plenty of interviews before — families, couples, grandparents sharing a lifetime of memories. But sitting down with someone whose whole life had been spent chasing horizons was different. I walked in with a page of questions and a quiet worry that I might not do the story justice.

Here is what that first adventure interview taught me.

Some of the most remarkable lives belong to people who would never think to call themselves remarkable. The neighbour who once crossed an ocean in a small boat. The grandmother who rebuilt a life from nothing after the war. The quiet uncle who spent three decades photographing birds in places most of us will never see. Ask them about it and they will shrug: “Oh, it wasn’t anything special.”

But it was. It always is.

A few months ago, we launched a pilot project with the District of West Vancouver Seniors’ Activity Centre — offering Life Chronicles sessions at a reduced community-centre rate to help members capture and preserve their personal stories on film.

We’re thrilled to share that the pilot was a success. The response from the community was wonderful, and the stories that came out of those sessions reminded us exactly why this work matters.

“I wanted to do this because in my middle age, I wished I’d asked my grandparents — even my mother and father — about things I wanted to know, and didn’t. So I thought if I did this, at least my grandchildren and great-grandchildren — who I don’t have any of yet — will get an inkling of what it was like.”

— D.H., West Vancouver Seniors’ Activity Centre, March 2026