Are museums relevant? Are they remnants of colonialism? Are they rooted in the past? The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), with one of the largest museum collections and curation teams in the world, was falling victim to shifting social perceptions. The reality is that museums do play a critical role in this era of the war on truth. They are a record of our humanity – from the beautiful to the abhorrent. Museums tell the story of our collective journey so that we can learn from our past, make sense of our present and shape our shared future. This underlying insight gave birth to our new platform, ROM Immortal: We live on in what we leave behind, which came to life in a cinematic masterpiece directed by the ever-talented Canadian Director, Mark Zibert. 

Immortal takes place in an oceanic setting, the earth’s womb as a non-descript newborn floats above the ocean floor where familiar scenes from a cross section of some of humanity’s most notable moments play out below and above. From the holocaust to Trump, Banksy to Tiananmen Square, the potential of life is read aloud highlighting the possibilities of the greatness and the darkness that is possible within all of us from conception. The scenes are haunting in ambiance and played out in slow motion, as we jump through history in non-linear fashion. The result is a 6-minute ode to life, a poignant evaluation of us all and an important lesson on how critical it is to understand the impact that we all have in the marks that we leave on the world and others.