AI offers documentary cinema unprecedented technical advantages and poses a multitude of ethical challenges. Many filmmakers have embraced the technology's ability to save them time and give them more headspace for creativity, especially in research and cleaning up the video and sound in archive materials. Others warn of the danger it poses to the ownership of images if AI is trained on their work without even letting them know, let alone considering financial compensation. And this is all before we get to the question of the place of synthetic images in documentary films.This talk gathers three documentary filmmakers who utilized AI for various purposes, including IDFA Guest of Honor, and an archive expert on ethical use of AI in his field. They will discuss all these issues and more, providing deep insight into the influence of this new, exciting and frightening technology on documentary cinema. 

Moderator: Elizabeth Klinck (E Klinck Research)

Speakers: Eugen Bräunig (Filmmaker, Houseguest Pictures), Susana de Sousa Dias (Director, Fordlândia Panacea, Post Criminal Case), David France (Director, Free Leonard Peltier), Marc Isaacs (Director, Synthetic Sincerity)

Closed caption service for people who are deaf or hard of hearing is available for this session. Please ask our staff for QR codes to scan on your phone.