How to Integrate Artificial Intelligence in Documentary Filmmaking
How to Integrate Artificial Intelligence in Documentary Filmmaking

Summary/Abstract: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into documentary filmmaking no longer functions merely as a technological add-on but signals a profound epistemological shift: the transition from singular authorship to algorithmic co-agency. This study, developed from a masterclass delivered as part of the Ex Oriente program at the Leipzig Institute of Documentary (2024), and extended through applied experiments in AI- assisted production, offers a critical framework for understanding how AI reconfigures each phase of the documentary pipeline—from pitching to post-production. Rather than evaluating tools like ChatGPT, MidJourney, ElevenLabs, Sora, Flux, and Largo.AI solely in terms of technical utility, this article conceptualizes them as cognitive and anticipatory interfaces within the narrative architecture of the documentary form. It interrogates the ethical, aesthetic, and structural implications of human-AI collaboration, especially within the economic constraints of independent productions and in relation to emerging norms of factual storytelling and credibility. Drawing on real-world applications—including the prototypical pitch Lost Fragments: Archives of War, the creation of a fully AI-generated promotional spot for the festival Our World: A Crisis of Meaning, and the algorithmic selection of the author’s own script by Largo. AI at the 2025 Marché du Film in Cannes—this study reconceptualizes AI as an epistemic partner. Rather than diminishing creativity, AI redistributes and refracts it through probabilistic, generative, and participatory processes. Ultimately, the article offers a transdisciplinary methodological map that positions AI not as a passive tool, but as an active narrative negotiator—one capable of reshaping documentary aesthetics, representational ethics, and future modes of authorship.

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