Preserving Living Memory: Drake Springer and Meredith Danluck on Why We Dream

Memorial Day often carries ceremony and distraction in equal measure. In this episode of Going Big!, Kevin Gentry sits down with producer Drake Springer and director Meredith Danluck to discuss Why We Dream, a documentary that follows World War II veterans returning to Normandy 80 years after D-Day.

Their conversation moves well beyond the making of a film. It becomes a reflection on memory, sacrifice, storytelling, and what happens when the last living witnesses to history are almost gone.

Why This Story Had to Be Told Now

For Springer and Danluck, the urgency was obvious. The veterans featured in the film were between 99 and 104 years old. The opportunity to hear directly from men and women who could say, “I was there,” is disappearing quickly. That gave the project its deeper weight.

This was not only about documenting what happened during the war. It was about capturing how these veterans understood their lives after the war, what they built, what they carried, and what they hoped later generations would remember.

The Spark Behind the Film

One line, in particular, helped unlock the film’s direction.

Veteran Betty Rosevear reflected on the people she served with and wondered what became of them after the war.

That question opened up a much larger story. Rather than making a documentary centered only on military history, the film became an exploration of lives shaped by service, loss, endurance, and return.

That shift mattered. It gave the documentary a human center.

The veterans are not treated as distant symbols from a celebrated generation. They are shown as distinct individuals, each with a voice, a memory, and a long life lived in the shadow and aftermath of war.

Telling a World War II Story a New Way

Springer and Danluck were clear from the beginning that they did not want to remake a familiar World War II documentary. Countless films have already covered the battles, dates, and strategies. Their challenge was to find a different entry point.

They found it by focusing on the emotional and personal dimension of the story. The return to Normandy became the thread, but the film’s real subject is the veterans themselves, their perspective, their silences, their recollections, and the way history lives inside a person long after the headlines have passed.

The Moments That Say the Most

Some of the most affecting moments in the conversation are not about words at all.

Danluck describes interviewing Betty Rosevear and sensing that deep emotion was rising to the surface even after the formal interview had ended. She also recalls asking another veteran, George Mullins, about a devastating wartime experience, only to hear him quietly say that he would rather not talk about it.

Those moments matter because they reveal how much of war survives in memory without always becoming language. The film appears to understand that restraint.

It does not force emotion. It pays attention to it.

A Big Creative Risk

The episode is also a Going Big story in its own right.

Springer explains that the project nearly collapsed before filming in France. Seats were limited on the charter. Support wavered. Internal questions surfaced. For a time, it looked like the film might not happen at all.

But the team kept pressing. They made the case that this could not wait another year.

The veterans were aging. The anniversary mattered. The chance to preserve these stories was too important to miss. That persistence eventually brought the project back to life.

Just as significant was their decision to resist turning the documentary into a celebration of the corporate brand behind the flights. Springer speaks candidly about protecting the film from becoming self-congratulatory. The veterans had to remain at the center. That choice gave the project credibility and moral weight.

Why the Story Reaches Beyond History

Although the film is rooted in World War II memory, the conversation repeatedly returns to the present. Danluck argues that many people today are hungry for authenticity, connection, and something more substantial than the outrage and isolation that dominate so much of modern life.

One veteran featured in the film reflects that society does not have enough love for humanity. That idea clearly stayed with both filmmakers and with Kevin.

That may be one reason the episode lands so well. It is historical, but it is also contemporary.

It asks what sacrifice means now. It asks what duty looks like in an age of distraction. It asks whether people are still willing to build something larger than themselves.