Attending "Responsible AI for Documentary" workshop at the Netherlands Film Academy

Today I attended a one-day workshop at the Netherlands Film Academy that tackled a question I’ve been wrestling with in my own practice: how do we sustain trust in documentary filmmaking when images, voices, and even “evidence” can be synthetically produced?

Hosted by Artefacto, the workshop moved far beyond the usual hype or moral panic around AI. Instead, it offered something I found refreshing: practical, transparent frameworks for using these tools without abandoning the rigor and ethics that define non-fiction cinema.

I appreciated how the day framed AI not as a shortcut or a threat but as a tool that demands humility, clarity, and self-awareness. As Artefacto puts it, documentary’s future depends not on refusing generative tools, but on wielding them with the rigor the form has always demanded.

I’m leaving with new methods, new questions, and a stronger sense of how to keep my own filmmaking practices transparent in an era where the line between the real and the synthetic is increasingly negotiable.

Event information