A feature documentary chronicling the Normandy Legacy Flight — the program that brought World War II veterans back to the coast of France in 2024 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The story
The film blends footage of the 2024 D-Day commemoration in Normandy with interviews with veterans and their families, and archival material — examining how the experiences of the Greatest Generation shaped American culture from the late 1940s to the present day.
Produced through Delta Air Lines' Window Seat Studios in partnership with Vice Media's Pulse Films, directed by Meredith Danluck, with an original score by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg. An Official Selection at the 2025 Tribeca Festival and the Deauville American Film Festival, acquired by CNN Films in January 2026.
Credits
Produced by Meredith Danluck, Casey Engelhardt, Matthew Shattuck, Drake Springer
Directed by Meredith Danluck
Story by Meredith Danluck, Casey Engelhardt
Cinematography by Jake Burghart
Music by Hans Zimmer, Christian Lundberg
Edited by Brian Gersten, Ronnie Silva
Featuring Arlester Brown, Sam Carlile, Gideon Kantor, Wally King, Papa Jake Larson, George Mullins, Andy Negra, and Betty Huffman-Rosevear
Delta Air Lines · Pulse Films · CNN Films
The craft
Some projects begin with a brief. Why We Dream began with a belief that Delta could do more than sponsor culture — it could help create something meaningful enough to become part of it.
Through Window Seat Studios, we helped originate and bring to life an ambitious feature documentary following some of the last surviving veterans of World War II as they returned to Normandy, eight decades after D-Day.
Getting there required far more than producing a film. It meant building belief inside a Fortune 100 company around an idea that didn't fit neatly into a traditional marketing playbook. It meant bringing together Delta, Pulse Films, director Meredith Danluck and an extraordinary group of creative partners; navigating the realities of international production with veterans in their 90s and 100s; and protecting the humanity of the story while creating something cinematic enough to stand on its own beyond the brand that made it possible.
The ambition grew with the project. Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg created the score. We filmed across the United States and Normandy. And throughout the process, the standard remained the same: this could never feel like branded content. Delta's role was to make the story possible, then give it the room to become something bigger.
That bet paid off.
Why We Dream premiered aboard the USS Intrepid in New York on D-Day during the Tribeca Festival, later screening in Deauville, and ultimately being acquired by CNN Films for a primetime television premiere and distribution on HBO Max.
This project represents the best of what brand entertainment can be: not a longer commercial, but an organization using its resources, reach and relationships to tell a story people would choose to spend time with — whether they ever knew a brand was behind it or not.
