Families Make Great Tape

We know... spending the holiday season with your family can be fraught, even painful. But whether or not you actually like your family, remember that you can always get a great story out of them.
We dug into our archives for stories that capture the sound of families, in all of their idiosyncratic glory.

Chanukah, 1992
One minute, snatched from a Chanukah party in 1992. Gwen Macsai's party, to be exact.
- 2017
- 01:17
- Dennis Funk

Scared
2008 ShortDocs Winner! The bittersweet fear of watching your child grow up.
- 2008
- 03:00
- John Biewen

My Parents' Extreme Tango Makeover
When Yowei Shaw was in college, her parents' relationship began to change.
- 2012
- 09:17
- Yowei Shaw

First You Leave and Then You Go
Karen's dad wanted to pass on his curiosity and his faith to his seven children. Karen inherited that curiosity, but sharing his faith is another story.
- 2017
- 10:28
- Karen Duffin

Not All Who Wander Are Lost… But Some Definitely Are
A car is a classic place to realize: "oh, I’m lost."
- 2017
- 25:46
- James Spring

The Big Night
Producer Jonathan Goldstein made every girl he ever dated watch the home movie of his family's Rosh Hashanah dinner he made when he was 17.
- 2002
- 13:57
- Jonathan Goldstein
Between Two Buns: The Sweet Story of Burger Sobriety
For Andrew's sister, eating a hamburger is a sublime experience.
- 2013
- 03:00
- Andrew Norton

W. Kamau Bell asks his Mom about Sex
For most of his life, comedian W. Kamau Bell assumed his single mom never had sex after she made him.
- 2016
- 37:26
- Hillary Frank
- Abigail Keel

Christmas With Grandma
With Grandma, things start bad and get worse.
- 2006
- 02:30
- Ken Cormier