• Reel Biography

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  When that family reunion rolls around, these folks can provide you with your A&E-style moment. Track down the black-and-whites of your parents on their honeymoon, the vintage 8-mm. film of your childhood pony rides, the influential figure that was your own personal Morrie—and the talented filmmakers at Reel Biography will produce a broadcast-quality documentary that, says client Bob Owens, is as visually interesting as it is a “coherent and sensible narrative.” Founder Marco Greenberg says that even though older subjects sometimes resist coming into the limelight, even recalcitrant subjects often really enjoy the final result. A full-day shoot, which runs about $10,000, can feature five to six talking heads from a family tree and can intersperse music with film and documents dug up by Reel’s genealogist, Eileen Polakoff. Even if your own life could use a few Freyish embellishments, surely the details of how your great-grandfather became the pawn-shop king of Manhattan after starting with only $5 in his pocket is one for the ages.

From the 2006 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine