Werner Herzog has spent more than half a century expanding the boundaries of cinema. From Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo to Grizzly Man, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, and Encounters at the End of the World, his films capture the extremes of human ambition, obsession, and survival. Few filmmakers have redefined what storytelling can mean with such courage or consistency.

This year, Herzog’s singular vision was honored with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival. The award, presented by Francis Ford Coppola, recognized him as one of cinema’s last true explorers—a visionary who continues to push beyond the limits of form and convention. His latest work, Ghost Elephants, developed with Sobey Road Entertainment, a Sway Media company, continues that legacy. The film, produced in collaboration with National Geographic, examines myth, memory, and the fragile coexistence between humans and nature, extending Herzog’s lifelong pursuit of what he calls “ecstatic truth.”

In this session from the 2025 Sway Minds Summit, Herzog joined Soledad O’Brien, Emmy Award–winning journalist, documentarian, and founder of Soledad O’Brien Productions, for a conversation on The Future of Storytelling and Truth. The article below is not a transcript, but an editorial interpretation of the ideas and insights they shared.

To explore the full discussion, including topics not covered here, subscribe to Sway Capital’s YouTube channel and get early access when Werner Herzog’s session is released.

A Life in Pursuit of the Ecstatic Truth

Herzog’s career has been guided by an unrelenting search for truth—not factual accuracy, but emotional and existential authenticity. His concept of “ecstatic truth” rejects mere documentation in favor of deeper revelation. Across decades of filmmaking, he has shown that the most powerful stories are not confined to what happened, but what could happen when imagination confronts reality.

To Herzog, storytelling is not a record of events but an act of discovery. Every film he makes is an expedition into the unknown, an attempt to reveal something essential about human nature. He reminds audiences that stories are not defined by information, but by insight. This philosophy has made his body of work a kind of cinematic anthropology—an archive of what it means to strive, fail, and transcend.

His approach offers a lesson to founders, technologists, and creators alike. Data alone cannot reveal meaning. True innovation, like great art, begins with curiosity, conviction, and the courage to look beyond the measurable toward the profound.

Truth and Storytelling in the Modern Era

In a world saturated with information and fragmented by algorithms, Herzog’s belief in imaginative truth feels urgent. He warns against the flattening of perspective that comes from endless replication and shallow engagement. The abundance of content, he suggests, has not led to more understanding but to more noise.

For founders and leaders, the parallel is unmistakable. Building a company—or a culture—requires more than analytics. It requires the capacity to shape a narrative that unites data with meaning. Herzog’s insistence on creative responsibility serves as a challenge to every storyteller in business or media: to resist the comfort of imitation and instead pursue originality with moral intent.

O’Brien framed this as the shared burden of filmmakers, journalists, and entrepreneurs alike: to restore coherence in a world of fractured truths. Their conversation underscored that integrity, not virality, is the foundation of trust, and that storytelling, done well, remains the most powerful tool for rebuilding it.

The Human Condition as the Frontier

Herzog’s work has always examined extremes—physical, emotional, and moral. Whether documenting the perilous obsessions of explorers, the fragility of civilization, or the endurance of art, he seeks moments that test the limits of what people believe possible. He often describes these moments as “new images,” the lifeblood of culture. Without them, he argues, civilization stagnates.

For the innovators and investors in the Sway Minds audience, that provocation resonated. In an age where technology evolves faster than our ability to interpret it, the search for “new images” is analogous to the search for new ideas. Both demand imagination, risk, and resilience. Progress, Herzog implied, depends on those willing to venture into uncertainty in pursuit of meaning.

Looking Ahead

As artificial intelligence reshapes the landscape of storytelling, Herzog remains focused on what machines cannot replicate: perspective, empathy, and wonder. His collaboration with Sobey Road Entertainment and National Geographic on Ghost Elephants exemplifies that commitment. The film blends science, myth, and environmental consciousness, showing how narrative can still move hearts while illuminating urgent truths about our planet.

His message to the next generation of creators was both pragmatic and profound. Technology may accelerate the way we tell stories, but it cannot replace the storyteller. The future, he argued, belongs to those who use tools not to mimic reality but to reimagine it.

The Power of the Imaginative Act

Herzog’s conversation left the audience with a simple but transformative insight: truth and imagination are not opposites, but partners. The act of storytelling—whether in film, journalism, or entrepreneurship—is an act of interpretation. Its purpose is not to mirror the world, but to deepen our understanding of it.

In an era defined by uncertainty and noise, Herzog’s perspective offers a reminder that meaning still begins with vision. For those building companies, cultures, or movements, his words serve as both caution and encouragement: to seek the ecstatic truth, and in doing so, create something that lasts.