•

REVFF26: Prompt: Make A Documentary

Synopsis

Artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging technology in filmmaking. It is already shaping how stories are written, images are created, films are edited, and audiences are targeted. Tools once reserved for major studios and specialised technicians are now accessible to anyone with a laptop, blurring the line between professional and amateur, assistance and authorship, human creativity and machine replication.

Set within Australia’s evolving film and education landscape, this film explores this transformation through the voices of filmmakers, educators, researchers, and industry practitioners working at the intersection of craft and technology. The documentary balances those embracing AI as a creative equaliser that enables micro-budget filmmakers and students to compete on an unprecedented scale with those raising urgent concerns about ethics, cultural ownership, labour displacement, and the automation of creativity.

Through studio-lit interviews, observational classroom footage, real-world production environments, and stylised AI-generated visual metaphors, the film examines how rapidly accelerating tools are reshaping both industry practice and creative identity. Explainer animations demystify complex concepts such as machine learning, copyright, data training, and algorithmic bias, grounding the conversation in clarity rather than hype.

At the heart of the film lies education. As curricula struggle to keep pace with technological change, teachers and students are forced to confront difficult questions. Should AI be embraced as an essential creative tool, or resisted as a threat to foundational skills and artistic integrity? What does it mean to teach storytelling in an era where machines can imitate imagination?

Rather than predicting the future or issuing warnings, Prompt: Make a Documentary reframes the debate. It argues that the future of cinema will not be determined by what AI is capable of, but by the values, ethics, and intentions of the people who choose how, and whether, to use it. In an age of automation, the film asks what remains distinctly human in the act of storytelling and whether that humanity can still be protected.