The Gift of Helping Someone Tell Their Story | Highlights From Remento’s 2025 December Webinar

As the holiday season invites reflection and togetherness, this webinar featured a conversation with documentary filmmaker Sky Bergman on how helping someone tell their story can be one of the most meaningful gifts we give. Through guided storytelling, thoughtful listening, and preserving memories with care and intention, the discussion explored how stories deepen connection and bring families closer together across generations.

A Beginning Built on Capturing Memories

The webinar opened with Remento co-founder Charlie Greene sharing the personal experiences that led to Remento’s creation. After losing his father at a young age and later facing the possibility of losing his mother, Charlie reflected on how easily stories can disappear, even within close families. Sitting down to record his mother’s memories revealed perspectives he had never heard before, despite a lifetime of conversations.

“What surprised me most was how much I learned about my mom for the very first time, even after a lifetime of conversations.”

From that experience, Remento was created to help families preserve stories before there’s urgency and before it’s too late. During the webinar, Charlie walked through how Remento works, describing a process that makes legacy creation engaging, simple, and lasting. Thoughtful questions and photo prompts are sent directly to the storyteller, who can respond in audio or video whenever it feels right. Those recordings are then transformed into written narratives through Remento’s Speech-to-Story Technology™ and can be paired with photos to create a color-printed hardcover book, often referred to as a no-write memoir, complete with QR codes that link back to the original recordings.

Learn how Remento works

Finding the Universal in the Personal

The conversation then turned to Sky Bergman and the work that has shaped her approach to storytelling. Sky shared that her documentary Lives Well Lived began as a deeply personal effort to capture her grandmother’s story, a way of holding onto her wisdom and perspective. What started as a family project grew into a multi-year exploration of memory, resilience, and meaning across generations.

Sky reflected on why stories resonate most deeply when they are personal. When people feel truly heard, their reflections often reach beyond their own lives.

“The more personal a story becomes, the more universal it is. Everyone has a story to tell if we take the time to listen. I’ve learned that when you give people the space to talk about their lives, they almost always share something that matters, not just to them, but to others too.”

She went on to describe how this belief guides her broader work, from filmmaking to teaching. Again and again, she has seen that people do not need extraordinary lives to offer something meaningful. What matters is having the space to reflect, thoughtful questions to respond to, and the freedom to share without feeling rushed.

The Role of Questions in Meaningful Storytelling

As the discussion continued, attention shifted to how stories are shaped by the questions we ask and the silence we allow. Open-ended prompts create room for reflection, while patience gives stories time to surface.

“The way you ask a question matters. An open-ended question invites reflection in a way a closed one never can.”

Some of the most meaningful moments appear after a pause, once someone has had space to consider what matters most to them. This philosophy closely aligns with how Remento approaches storytelling, guiding reflection without pressure and allowing stories to unfold at their own pace.

Where Sky Bergman’s Storytelling Philosophy Meets Remento

Sky Bergman’s work reflects a deep respect for lived experience. Through her films, teaching, and storytelling practice, she has spent years creating space for people to reflect on their lives and share the moments that shaped them. Her approach emphasizes patience, curiosity, and care for the storyteller, values that closely align with how Remento supports families in capturing meaningful memories.

“If you’ve lived life, you have stories worth sharing. Those stories help the next generation understand where they come from and how to move through the world.”

Remento puts this philosophy into practice, making it possible for families to preserve stories in everyday life. By honoring stories in both recorded and printed form, Remento helps make sure that the kind of thoughtful storytelling Sky champions can happen for families everywhere, every day, now and in the future. To explore more of Sky’s work, visit skybergmanproductions.com.

How Preserved Stories Shape Lives

Preserving stories reaches beyond memory keeping. Stories help people understand where they come from, how their families have navigated challenges, and what values endure across generations. Many families find that recording stories changes how they relate to one another in the present.

This theme echoes a familiar insight: families often realize too late which moments they wish they had taken the time to capture. Preserving stories is not only about the future. It strengthens connection and understanding today.

A Remento book brings this impact into the physical world. Each color-printed hardcover is designed to be held, shared, and returned to over time. Stories are printed on double-thick pages, giving each memory space and weight. QR codes link directly to the original audio and video recordings, allowing readers to move between the printed page and the moments behind each story, preserving words, expressions, and emotion together.

See inside a Remento book

A Lasting Gift That Grows With Time

As the holiday season invites gathering and reflection, preserving a loved one’s stories becomes a way to honor what has been lived while creating something meaningful for the future. These moments often begin now, when families are together and stories surface naturally.

With over half a million stories recorded, Remento helps families turn reflection into something lasting. Stories shared today become a source of connection for years to come, returning families to the voices, experiences, and meaning that shape who they are.

Give the gift of helping someone share their story today. Begin your Remento journey.