I paddled a glowing kayak through downtown Ottawa after dark

Grainy videos hide more than they reveal. They smooth out the texture and contours of life in a single moment. We often look back on these relics as beautiful, simpler times. But it’s hard to grasp what life felt like for the protagonists in the frame. The anxiety and excitement. The stack of bills collecting on the counter or the sick grandparents out of view. The optimism or dread of whether a child’s life will be more promising than a parent’s. Last year, my father digitized the entire catalogue of our home videos that had piled up in basement boxes over the decades. My dad, being...