How will your kids, grandkids and future generations remember your loved one’s stories?

Michael Puterflam with his grandmother Nellie

Most people pass on photos, some write books… But neither captures the essence of a person like a life story documentary.

Michael Puterflam has created Storylast, an initiative that will produce a life story documentary in which a family’s loved ones have an opportunity to tell their story in their own words for future generations.

Michael told J-Wire: “In today’s world, it’s never been more important to document the stories and lessons of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.”

Our loved ones’ histories help us understand more about who we are, where we’ve come from, and where we might want to go.

Everyone passes down photos, some write books, but there’s nothing quite like capturing your loved one’s story in a video akin to an episode of ‘Australian Story’.

Imagine in 50 years, your child asks you, ‘what was my great-grandmother like?’

Instead of showing them some photos, iPhone videos and rattling off top-line facts and stories, you can show them a full documentary of your grandparent telling their story in their own words.

You get to see their emotion as they smile, laugh, or cry while reflecting on the most important events, milestones, stories, lessons and people in their life.

Plus, there’s photos, videos and additional interviews from their loved ones to further capture their essence and intricacies.

When I was at school,  I interviewed my grandpa for a school ancestry project and created a documentary where, for the first time, he told his story of how he survived the Holocaust and went on to raise a family in Australia.

Without that video, my grandpa’s story would have been lost forever.

Now his story will be kept in my family and passed down forever.

That’s what I want to help more people to achieve.”

One of Michael Puterflam’s first projects was to document his own grandmother’s life.

To see an example of Storylast at work check https://www.storylast.com/