Forum explores documentary filmmaking in the AI era

The 5th Chinese Documentary Film Festival hosted a public lecture series on Sept 24 at the Guangzhou Library, bringing together scholars, filmmakers and young creators to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing documentary filmmaking in the age of artificial intelligence.

Under the theme "Technological Waves and Humanistic Persistence: Rethinking Documentary Film in the AI Era", the event featured two keynote lectures addressing creative shifts and ethical concerns in the industry.

Gu Yaqi, a distinguished professor at Renmin University of China's School of Arts, delivered a talk titled "How Can Truth Become More Powerful: Creative Shifts in Documentary Film in the Smart Media Era".

Drawing on his research on a decade of Chinese documentary films from 2014 to 2024, he said that of 387 documentaries granted public screening permits between 2014 and 2023, only 152 were screened in theaters. While the market has seen occasional hits, box office performance of documentaries remains generally low, with a clear gap between top performers and mid-tier films, he added.

Xia Meng, a researcher at China Media Group's research institute and vice-president of the China Documentary Society, delivered a speech titled "Technology and Ethics in the AI Era". He warned of risks including algorithmic bias, deepfakes, blurred accountability and privacy breaches, and outlined three paths of human control by technology: neural data collection, reverse algorithm writing and consciousness outsourcing.

In creative fields, Xia cautioned that overreliance on AI screenwriting and performance could lead to formulaic plots, flattened characters and emotional emptiness. "Technology can simulate performance, but it cannot replace human experience and dignity," he said.

He reaffirmed documentary aesthetics rooted in truth, presence, humanity and time. "Algorithms can generate images, but they cannot generate a real person. This is precisely why documentaries remain irreplaceable in the AI era," said Xia.