Director, producer, and screenwriter Steven Spielberg, gave his speech at Harvard’s 365th Commencement on May 26, 2016 at Tercentenary Theatre, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“My job is to create a world that lasts two hours. Your job is to create a world that lasts forever,” Spielberg said. “You are the future innovators, motivators, leaders, and caretakers.”
Spielberg said there are plenty of villains in real life, not just in the movies. Hate in all its forms endures worldwide, and genocide didn’t stop with the Nazis. The Shoah Foundation that he started in 1994 to document the experiences of Holocaust survivors not only has spoken with 53,000 survivors and witnesses of that calamity, but also has begun to interview survivors of atrocities in Rwanda, Cambodia, Armenia, and Nanking.
“We must never forget that the inconceivable … happens with frequency,” Spielberg said. “Atrocities are happening right now.”
