How do I come up with an idea if the character is dead

by Grace
(Nairobi, Kenya)

Question: Hi my name is Grace. I want to shoot a short docu about how my grandma died of cancer. It was detected early enough so she succumbed after surgery. My question is how do I make a docu about her even though she's dead?

Desktop Documentaries: Hi Grace. First of all, I'm sorry about your grandmother. To answer your question about how to make a documentary about someone who is deceased, there are many ways to go about this.

First question is: Do you have any photos or home movies of your grandmother? If so, you can use those as the images and then use your own voice or someone else voice as narration to tell her story.

What if you don't have any photos or images? You can interview people who knew her and they can describe what she was like. You could film where she used to live, the places she went, etc.

If there are no photos as all, what about getting an artist to draw out images that represent your grandmother's life?

You could also find some actors to reenact scenes from your grandmother's life.

You could use beautiful images and poetry to capture the heart and spirit of your grandmother.

Those are just a few quick ideas about how to tell the story of someone who is deceased.

Good luck, Grace!

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