A 60–75 minute documentary of one life, crafted by people — built from the interviews, the voices of the family, and the photographs you have gathered along the way.
Already recording with us? Commission it for your story →
Not a slideshow, and not something a machine assembles while you wait. A finished documentary about one person, made once, and kept.
A person watches every interview, reads every caption, and decides what belongs. The moments that matter are chosen, not scored by a computer.
Long enough to be a real portrait of a life — childhood, work, love, the hard years, what they would want said — and shaped to be watched together in one sitting.
We deliver the finished film as a private link, to watch together and to share with the family. Your chapters stay exactly where they are, whether or not you ever commission the Portrait.
A documentary can only be as full as the material behind it. Before we can start building yours, your collection needs to reach three marks — and your dashboard tracks all three as you go.
Thirty sessions with Jess, or on your own. This is what gives a film its shape: enough of a life, in their own voice, to tell it honestly rather than in highlights.
Answers from the people around them — children, grandchildren, old friends. A portrait told only by its subject is a monologue; the other voices are what make it a portrait.
The pictures carry the years the camera never saw. Weddings, kitchens, uniforms, houses long since sold — these are what the interviews are cut against.
There is no deadline on any of this. Most families reach these marks over months, a question or two at a time, with relatives adding their own answers and photographs from wherever they live. You can see exactly where you stand at any moment on your dashboard. Only once all three are met, and the answers are in, does the four-to-six-week build begin.
If a membership already pays for the story and isn’t set to end, it keeps covering recording. Otherwise the Life Portrait includes 12 months of recording — for a gift, counted from the day it is opened. After that you keep everything you’ve recorded, you can add a membership to keep going, or you can ask for a full refund — available any time until production starts.
Commission it whenever you like. Once the three marks are met and the answers are in, we begin — and the film takes four to six weeks to build. Buying it for someone else’s story, or as a gift? The storyteller answers the questions and sees the first cut before anyone else, and we keep you posted along the way.
Thirty interviews, five interviews from family and friends, one hundred photos and videos. Your dashboard shows the count against each one, so you always know how close you are.
A short set of questions, answered in their own words: who the film is for, how it should feel, how it should leave them feeling at the end, and the moments that must not be left out.
Our team works through every interview, contribution and photograph, and assembles the documentary around those answers. The clock starts once your interviews, contributions and photographs are all in and the answers are submitted — not before. We email you the day production starts. Until that day, you can cancel for a full refund.
We send the storyteller a private first cut. Nothing reaches the family until they have watched it and said yes. If something is wrong, or missing, or should not be in there at all, they tell us and we put it right.
The finished film arrives as a private link — to watch together, and to share with the people it was made for.
One price, paid once — whenever you choose.
Commission it any time — for your own story, for a story you keep, or as a gift for someone who hasn’t started yet. We make it once the story reaches the three marks and the answers are in; it arrives four to six weeks later. Unless a membership that isn’t set to end already covers the story, it includes 12 months of recording. Full refund any time until production starts. No subscription attached, and nothing to renew.
With or without a membership. You don’t need one to commission the Life Portrait, and it never adds a monthly charge. If the story has a membership that isn’t set to end, it carries on as before and covers recording; if it has been cancelled, the Life Portrait includes its own 12 months. Monthly chapter films and the Everlasting Presence come with a membership.
Begin with one question answered today. Commission the Portrait now or later — we make it when the collection is ready, and everything you record belongs to you long before then.
Commission the Life PortraitQuestions about the Portrait? Call 512-522-4079 or write to hello@theeverlasting.ai.