Ava DuVernay used AI on her latest documentary and stands firmly by that decision.
’14th’
Ten years after releasing “13th,” the filmmaker is releasing a new documentary that examines how principles from the 14th Amendment, such as citizenship, due process, and equal protection of the laws, have been challenged, the AV Club reports. DuVernay shared that she was motivated to make the documentary titled “14th” after President Donald Trump discussed “his desire to dismantle birthright citizenship while he was a candidate,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I don’t know much about the 14th Amendment at that point, but I know birthright citizenship is in it. So we start thinking about the possibility of making this film at that point,… and once we saw all of the tentacles of the current administration attacking this amendment, we knew that there was more there. So we investigated it, and that’s what the film became,” she continued.
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“14th” has drawn criticism for using AI in post-production to animate some photos.
“The tools that the artists used to do the parallax and the animation in the films have that technology in them, as does Pro Tools with sound, as does Avid with editorial, as does Resolve with color,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “I think we’ve come to a place in filmmaking where we have to be really sober about the ways in which that technology is [used] across so much of the workflow.”
She added, “We didn’t use it to fabricate a person or make an avatar of a person or approximate someone’s voice that said something they didn’t say. We actually animated some photos that are in the public domain, and from what we’ve been hearing from people, it does bring people closer to that time in history, which was our goal. So people have to see it and check it out for themselves and make their decisions about how they feel.”
“14th” premiered at the New York Film Festival and will come to Netflix on Dec. 4, according to the AV Club.
