History Is a Democratic Right
What We Learned on Set: Episode 1
Over the last few years, we’ve been lucky enough to travel the world gathering and curating stories. One of the countless and inspiring moments from our time on set is from our work on EXC Talks, a multimedia series that combines on-stage storytelling, documentary filmmaking, and immersive graphics, for our amazing partners over at Holland America Line.
There’s a certain sense of awe you experience when exploring an archive. You wander the endless rows of filing cabinets and boxes. You wonder about the sheer magnitude of information hidden inside. Scraps of paper that mark a million distant lives — birth certificates, deeds, marriage licenses, passports, diaries. You grow giddy just thinking about the people and the stories that these boxes hold.
That’s what we all felt at the Rotterdam City Archives. We were there to meet Jantje Steenhuis, the city archivist, to interview her about Holland America Line’s rich 150-year history. Rotterdam was the cruise line’s birthplace and home for many years, and we were there to uncover some interesting stories.
If you love history and unearthing stories as much as we do, an archive like this should be a playground. An immaculately maintained, perfectly preserved, temperature-controlled playground. The objects are untouchable. They’re protected by acid-free folders and plastic covers. They need to be handled by professionals in special gloves. You have to be careful about where you step, where you breathe. Because even the slightest bit of human contact could destroy something that has survived centuries. And you definitely don’t want to be the destroyer of something that has survived centuries.
But in truth, walking through the archives, it was overwhelming. The sheer weight of all this history, all these documents, the endless boxes of photos and deeds and letters — it was all too much. Who could possibly take the time to read all of this? To organize it? Who would choose the weight, the responsibility? How could all of this history actually matter?
And so we were blown away when in the middle of her interview, Jantje plainly said this:
And suddenly, the urgency of her responsibility, and what we were now a part of, all made sense. Archives don’t just house old, obscure things for a select group of academics to delight in and debate in an ivory tower. History is not neatly tucked away on a dusty shelf. It is alive and relevant, for all of us.
It must be shared and it must be told.
As storytellers, we are responsible for this too. We may not hold the keys to the artifacts, but in the finding, listening to, and transmitting the stories, we are providing access to something vital.
All of the historians, archivists, and curators we met in Rotterdam opened our eyes to this responsibility. At the Maritime Museum Rotterdam, we toured an incredible warehouse filled with artifacts from ancient ships, centuries-old oil paintings, and personal photographs. And we met dedicated, passionate curators who were generous enough to let us spend time with these valuable objects and remind us that they are more than museum items. They are stories of real people — and they matter. They mattered then, and they matter now.
Since Rotterdam, we’ve traveled to so many places, from the lush mountains of Hawaii to the bustling streets of Barcelona, helping brands uncover unexpected, moving, human stories. And we’ve met remarkable people who let us into their world and showed us their own histories. They trusted us to listen, to live up to our role as storytellers, and to pass on what we’ve learned.
And every time we’re on set, every time we get home and start writing a script, we remember that being able to share these stories and keep this history alive is an honor and a responsibility. And like Jantje, we don’t take that lightly.
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