‘A mix between YouTube and Wikipedia’
"I started interviewing Holocaust survivors because to me, they were the most important stories imaginable"
Showing The AJN a dilapidated paper manuscript of a biography, 26-year-old video-biographer Daniel Delaway expressed his concern about the loss of vital stories when they are stored in this way.
The paper was faded and ripped, discarded without a care, despite the contents being full of interesting and rich life experiences.
Delaway is a King David alumnus who has passionately taken on the project of telling others’ stories and sharing them on The Archive, his platform that he describes as “a mix between YouTube and Wikipedia for human stories”.
“I wanted to capture the story of my grandmother, and in that process, I realised, it reminded me of issues I’ve seen in the past with these autobiographies,” Delaway said.
After developing a short film of his grandmother’s life he realised this was a service many people would find value in.
“I want families to know that this is available and that their most treasured stories and local community stories can be preserved forever,” he told The AJN.
Delaway has set up a studio in which he can interview community members and create his video biographies.
“I think knowing how much easier it is to just talk to someone for a couple hours versus spending months if not years writing an autobiography is important,” he said.
“It always confused me why this wasn’t available, and I took it upon myself to start.”
Delaway said that he is “really passionate about interviewing Holocaust survivors” – and added that he never charges Holocaust survivors for his services.
“I started interviewing Holocaust survivors because to me, they were the most important stories imaginable,” he said.
“When I started interviewing local Holocaust survivors, it just really started clicking that this should have existed 20 years ago.
“And I wanted to take it upon myself to kind of make the change I wanted to see in the space.”
On his platform – called The Archive – there is the option to privatise the videos or to make them public, so depending on the purpose of the video biography there are options for everyone.
He is currently in the process of creating a training material for people to film their own videos for family members or friends, in which he will give videography and interview tips.
“I started envisioning a platform where everyday people like us can interview a relative that they care about, and have a place to put it so that it can live on without them needing to take care of it.”
Delaway is a self-taught videographer who has built up his business. When he started developing videos, he invested in high-quality film equipment.
For more infomation and to book an interview, visit thearchive.io
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