IFP's Independent Film Week, which ran September 17 through 20 in New York City, had a strong focus on narrative filmmaking, but the programmers saved
Ethics
There was plenty to look forward to at the 11th Tribeca Film Festival. More than 30 documentaries played in competition and non-competition sections
In a recent joint submission to a call for contributions on AI and Creativity at the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, WITNESS, the Co-Creation Studio at MIT, and the Archival Producers Alliance (APA) outlined these pressing dangers. Drawing from years of frontline research, workshops, and advocacy with creative communities and human rights defenders around the world, we identified seven core threats AI poses to human creativity.
When it comes to AI and documentary, all bets are off in 2025. So, we scrapped our column line-up for The Synthesis and hit reset. To recap, it’s been a dizzying year so far: in Europe, the February Paris AI Policy Action summit failed to usher in much meaningful regulation, and in the U.S., under the new Presidential administration, a March directive from the National Institute of Standards and Technology eliminates the mention of “AI safety” and “AI fairness.” To reboot in this context, we checked in with a few documentarians, artists, and human rights advocates. We asked them this question: In this unregulated and dysregulated landscape, what are the immediate and new concerns of AI shaping the future of documentary filmmaking in 2025?
Prolific documentary essayist Charlie Shackleton’s latest film focuses on one of America’s most notorious criminals, the Zodiac Killer. Or rather, it’s a film about the documentary he would’ve made about the serial killer, had he been able to secure the rights to California Highway Patrol Officer Lyndon E. Lafferty’s 2012 true-crime book, The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up. As he describes the project that didn’t materialize, Shackleton pokes fun at the tropes that have come to define modern true crime shows. For Documentary, Shackleton spoke about weighing art against artifice and the ethical considerations of true crime.
To Catch a Predator (2004–2007), a periodic segment on the TV newsmagazine Dateline NBC, was one of the biggest nonfiction sensations of the 2000s. The new documentary Predators, recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, examines this and other ethical issues around the program. In particular, the film scrutinizes the host of copycat media operations that have arisen over the years, as well as the show’s broader influence on the true crime genre. Ahead of the premiere, we sat down with director David Osit over Zoom to discuss To Catch a Predator and its modern fan community, finding all the materials used in Predators, and the delicate balancing act involved in incorporating so much raw footage.
About a Hero is set to have its world premiere as the opening film at IDFA tomorrow. It’s based on a script generated by an AI trained on Werner Herzog’s interviews, voiceovers, and writing. The resulting film, full of ironic self-reflection, explores themes of originality, authenticity, common sense, and the human soul in an era shaped by machine-human relationships. The filmmakers employ a variety of AI tools—from scripting to voice synthesis to image experimentation. The film is also intercut with documentary interviews with various artists about AI. We spoke with Piotr Winiewicz, the film’s director, in advance of the film’s premiere over Zoom and email.
Welcome to The Synthesis, a new monthly column exploring the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and documentary practice. Over the next year, co-authors shirin anlen and Kat Cizek will lay out ten (or so) key takeaways that synthesize the latest intelligence on synthetic media and AI tools—alongside their implications for nonfiction mediamaking. Balancing ethical, labor, and creative concerns, they will engage Documentary readers with interviews, analysis, and case studies. The Synthesis is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Co-Creation Studio at MIT’s Open Doc Lab and WITNESS.
In a world rent asunder, conference speakers thrust documentary ethics into reality.
Now, while there may be greater attention to filmmakers’ proximity to their subjects and a push for more diverse directors, co-directors, producers, and crew members, there’s also a rise in what some call “cover-your-ass” hires over meaningful collaborations. If the U.S. industry, then, has accepted that documentary projects benefit from having creatives from similar races, genders, sexualities, or nationalities as their subjects, they might be included—but are they actual partners?