Estate Plans Transfer Assets. We Help Transfer Values, Wisdom, and Family Identity.
Dickens Brothers creates permanent records of the founder’s voice, philosophy, and vision through film so future generations understand not just what was built, but why.
Our Story
We Were Inspired By Something That Changed Our Lives
It started for us in 2016 when we decided to make a documentary about our late father. He passed away from cancer when we were kids. We wanted to create something that not only honored him, but also brought together all the people who he impacted throughout his life.
A year later, we interviewed close to 40 people and developed an 80 minute film that brought our father’s story to life. We titled it, His Legacy.
A family’s identity isn’t held by one person. It’s held by the full circle, the founders and the family, but also the partners, the mentors, the rivals, the employees, and the lifelong friends. The people who saw the sacrifices, who were there for the failures, and who experienced the impact. We interview across generations and across relationships, drawing out the stories rarely told and the perspectives no one has heard. We then build it into a cinematic continuity film that becomes the family’s permanent reference point for who they are, where they came from, and what they stand for. Our process takes you on a collaborative experience to construct your legacy for future generations.
Our Story
We Started Because We Knew What Discontinuity Felt Like
Our father passed away from cancer when we were kids. There was no video of his voice. No footage of his stories. No record of the values that shaped him. In 2016, we set out to fix that, interviewing nearly 40 people to piece together an 80-minute film we titled His Legacy. That experience taught us something we’ve seen confirmed in every family since: the stories that hold a family together don’t survive on their own. They have to be deliberately captured and transmitted forward. That’s what Dickens Brothers does.
We Started Because We Knew What Gets Lost
That experience taught us something we’ve seen confirmed in every family since: the wisdom that built a family’s wealth disappears within two generations unless someone deliberately captures it. We’re not videographers. We’re the team that ensures what mattered to the founder still matters to the grandchildren.
DOCUMENTARY CASE STUDY
A Dime to Give: The Holloway Story
WHAT WE DO
What a Continuity Film Captures
What We Preserve, Every engagement captures six dimensions that families need to
stay connected to who they are and where they came from.
Origin
How the wealth was built. The founding story, the obstacles overcome, the sacrifices made, the turning points that created everything the family has today. Without this documented, heirs inherit assets without understanding what they cost.
Values
The real principles that guided the founder’s decisions, how money was made, how people were treated, what lines were never crossed. Not a mission statement. The actual convictions. Without these transmitted, the next generation has wealth but no compass.
Intention
What the founder hopes the next generation will do with what they’ve received. Not just asset management, but responsibility, stewardship, and purpose. Without stated intention, heirs guess. And guessing leads to conflict.
Voice
The founder’s voice, preserved permanently. Not words on paper, the actual person: their conviction, their cadence, their presence. This is the one thing that cannot be reconstructed after they’re gone.
Connection
The filmmaking process itself becomes the family’s first shared experience in years. Stories surface that no one knew. Conversations happen that never would have. One Texas family saw their disengaged third and fourth generation voluntarily reengage with the family foundation by the end of the project.
Permanence
A cinematic documentary the family returns to at every major transition, succession conversations, foundation board meetings, next-generation onboarding, and hard family decisions. Not a one-time watch. A permanent tool.
AWARDS
WHO WE SERVE
Founders: Visionary Leaders and Pioneers
You built something from nothing. Your biggest concern isn’t the balance sheet, it’s whether the people who come after you will understand what it took and why it mattered. We create a permanent record of your voice, your philosophy, and the leadership lessons that shaped everything you built.
Families: Legacy and Tradition Bearers
The stories that hold your family together don’t survive on their own. Within two generations, the origin story, the sacrifices, the principles, they fade. We capture all of it in a format your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will actually experience and understand.
Foundations: Purpose-Driven Organizations
Your foundation has a mission statement. But does the next generation of board members understand the conviction behind it? We capture the founder’s passion, obstacles, and intent in a film that keeps the mission alive, long after the people who started it are gone.
Founder to Foundations
Every wealthy family has attorneys, advisors, and financial plans. Almost none of them have documented why the wealth exists in the first place, what the founder sacrificed, what principles guided them, and what they hope the next generation will understand. That’s the gap we fill. A continuity film isn’t just a tribute. It’s a form of infrastructure. It captures the founding generation’s origin, values, obstacles, impact and intentions in a format that keeps the family connected to its identity across every transition. Estate plans handle the money, while continuity films handle the meaning. One without the other is incomplete.
