Real Stories, New Tools: AI in Documentary Filmmaking

The AI conversation tends to focus on fantasy worlds and scripted content, but it is also changing what is possible for documentary producers and filmmakers. This panel looks at how documentaries are using AI to expand what they can put on screen and how they get there, including AI recreations, scanning real locations and archives into 3D with Gaussian splats, restoring and upscaling historical footage, and AI assistant editors that help build rough cuts and dig through hundreds of hours of footage. Panelists walk through recent projects and show how each tool fits a documentary workflow, from development through post.