The Story that Launched a Decade of Promise

Ten years ago, the world made a promise to itself.

On September 24, 2015, the United Nations convened the largest gathering of world leaders in human history to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals — 17 ambitious commitments to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure dignity and prosperity for all. It was a moment of extraordinary unity: heads of state from every corner of the globe, visionaries, scientists, artists, and youth leaders all came together under one roof to declare that a better future was not only possible — it was within reach.

But global promises need more than policy to endure. They need belief. They need heart. They need story.

That’s why HUMAN was invited by the United Nations to create a seven-part short film series that would open the Sustainable Development Summit. These films, titled The Story You Are Shaping, were not designed to explain the goals. They were crafted to ignite something deeper — to reach the human being inside every world leader and remind them what’s at stake. Written as love letters to humanity, the films called forth empathy, courage, and imagination from the highest levels of power to the citizen level.

The series premiered in the General Assembly Hall in New York, marking a cultural heartbeat for the launch of the SDGs. Just months later, it played again at COP21 in Paris — another unprecedented gathering, where 196 nations came together to sign the historic Paris Agreement. The films echoed across both summits as cinematic signal flares, casting a vision for the future of humanity not just in statistics, but in stories.

Because that’s what the SDGs needed from the beginning: not just data or targets, but meaning. A goal only becomes real when people can see themselves inside it. When a grandmother in Peru, a coral farmer in the Pacific, or a refugee girl in Lebanon feels that her life is part of the arc of progress — then the goals begin to live.

So we listened. Across every country in the world. Across generations and geographies. From women’s rights defenders in Nepal to climate activists in Kenya, what emerged wasn’t a single narrative, but a shared heartbeat: the future is not something we inherit. It’s something we author. And we are all, already, shaping it.

Now, at the decade mark, the world stands at another crossroads. The SDGs have inspired real progress — from reducing extreme poverty to expanding access to clean energy — but much remains unfinished. More than ever, we believe the next leap forward will come not from pledges alone, but from stories that shift culture. Stories that carry vision. Stories that reconnect policy to people.

At HUMAN, we remain guided by the same truth that shaped those original films: behind every transformation — personal, political, or planetary — is a story that made it possible.

And as the world writes the next chapter, we ask:
What story are you shaping?

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