Legacy Picture Co.

Family documentary films

The stories get told
at Thanksgiving. Record them.

Your father's war stories, your mother's version of how they met, the grandmother's recipe that exists nowhere on paper. Our films are built around the interview: your family, in their own words, on the record - restored home movies, family photos, and music underneath. Delivered on USB, Blu-ray, and a private family link.

Start the conversation See films & rates
An elder being interviewed on camera at home

Fulton Market studio — Serving the Midwest since 2009

Why now

The archive everyone wishes they had made

Every family has a moment when it becomes clear the stories were never recorded - and it is always too late to ask the questions. We exist so that moment arrives, for your family, with the answers already on film.

The interview is the heart of it. Two relaxed sessions at the kitchen table, a camera your parents will forget about in ten minutes, and questions we have asked a thousand times and still listen to like the first. The restoration, the photos, the music - all of it serves the voice.

From production

La pratique, en vrai

The kitchen-table interview
Everyone forgets the camera by minute ten.
Reels from 1968, restored
The scratched ones usually survive.

The studio

Listeners first, filmmakers second

Founder & director

Gerald Whitmore

Sixteen years of documentary interviews - veterans, founders, grandmothers, and one career-long habit of shutting up at exactly the right moment. Conducts or oversees every interview personally.

Cinematographer

Priya Raman

Shoots interviews like portraits: patient, unhurried, lit softly. Former local-news photographer who now works at the speed stories deserve.

Editor & restoration

Marcus Doyle

Restores 8mm, VHS, and mini-DV that families assumed were ruined. Assembles every film around the interview, never the other way around.

Producer

Elaine Fox

Handles the family coordination - the schedule, the awkward question of who to interview first, and the gentle pursuit of the uncle everyone says should be included and the uncle says no.

Films & rates

Four levels of remembering

01

The Recorded Stories

Start here

Two interview sessions, one location. A 25-minute film with photos and music - the essential record, delivered in 45 days.

$2,400 film

02

The Family Film

Most booked

Three interviews across two generations, location filming at the family home, home-movie restoration, 40-minute film, two Blu-ray sets and USB.

$5,800 film

03

The Generations Film

The full story

Up to six interviews across the family, the hometown, the old neighborhood, and the family business. 60-minute film, restored archive, five family sets.

$9,200 film

04

The Estate Archive

Everything, preserved

A year of production: every elder interviewed, every reel restored, a 90-minute master film plus chaptered archive of the full interviews - the complete record, uncut.

$14,500 collection

All prices USD. Travel outside the Chicago area quoted at cost. Every package includes the full-resolution family archive on USB - we do not hold your memories hostage for licensing fees.

The process

From first call to premiere

01

01

The planning conversation

Gerald calls, listens, and drafts the question list from what your family actually talks about. No forms; a conversation.

02

02

The interviews

Two to three sessions at the kitchen table or living room. We bring tea-and-coffee pace; elders set the tempo and the breaks.

03

03

The archive

Marcus restores the home movies and scans the album boxes. The scratched reels from 1971 usually survive; he will tell you honestly which do.

04

04

The premiere

First cut in three weeks, family review, finished film in 45 days. Most families screen it at the next gathering - we can help plan that too.

Client stories

What our clients say

"We filmed my father the winter before his last one. My grown children have watched that film more times than they ever listened to the stories live. That arithmetic still stops me."

Barbara L. · daughter, 63 (Oak Park)

"Dad told the army story on camera with details he had never told us - because Gerald asked the follow-up question the rest of us never had. The film is now the family's most-owned object."

The Moreno family · three generations interviewed (Evanston)

"The 8mm reels from 1968 came back sharper than my memory of them. My mother watched the restoration and narrated it live for the grandkids. That session became part of the film. Perfect."

Susan K. · family film, 2019 (Naperville)

// Before you book //

Frequently asked questions

This is the most common opening line we hear, and the second most common review we receive is "we did not think Dad would do it." Two sessions, no studio, no lights in the face - and Gerald, whose whole craft is the first ten minutes.
Sixty to ninety minutes each, with breaks whenever wanted. We stop when the storyteller does. The best material reliably arrives after minute forty.
8mm, Super 8, VHS, Betamax, mini-DV, and Hi8. Included in the Family Film and up. If a reel is truly too far gone, Marcus says so before charging you for hope.
Your family does - personal-use license in writing, full-resolution archive on USB, and we surrender interview masters 12 months after delivery unless you ask us to keep backups.
Entirely. The streaming link is private and password-protected, nothing is posted publicly without separate written permission, and portfolio use always asks first.
The Generations Film is designed for it: interviews in multiple cities scheduled around one or two trips, or a careful mix of in-person and remote capture for far-flung relatives.

Inquire

Who should we interview first

Tell us about the storyteller or storytellers, the town, and roughly when you would like the film to premiere. Gerald replies personally, within a day.

TEL (312) 555-0176
Hours Mon-Fri 9am-6pm CT

メール [email protected]