Venice Film Festival to screen AI-generated documentary 'Be Brave'

The Venice Film Festival will feature 'Be Brave,' an Italian documentary notable for being entirely produced using Artificial Intelligence. Director Alberto Barbera described the film as an "artistic experiment" when announcing its participation in the festival, which runs from September 2 to 12.

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the first Italian feature documentary created entirely using artificial intelligence

'Be Brave' chronicles the life of Renzo Rosso, the visionary founder of the renowned Italian fashion and communication brand Diesel. The film's director, Francesco Carrozzini, utilized AI not only for generating sequences but also for reprocessing and modifying live-action footage. This approach aims to explore the evolving relationship between human creativity and technological advancements, blurring the lines between the real and the artificial.

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Even those sequences that were not generated by AI, those shot in live-action, were subsequently reworked and modified using AI, purely as an artistic experiment.

The documentary will be screened out of competition in the Venice Open section, dedicated to non-fiction films. The production company, Our Films, stated on Instagram that they chose an unconventional method because "you cannot tell the story of someone who breaks the rules by following the rules." They believe that "every revolution needs a human error to change the world," justifying their use of AI.

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You cannot tell the story of someone who breaks the rules by following the rules. So we didn't.

'Be Brave' shares the festival lineup with other diverse films, including Russell Crowe's autobiographical 'What Love Builds,' Alex Gibney's 'Musk,' Amos Gitai's 'The road to Jerico,' Mariano Llinás's 'Biography of Jorge Luis Borges,' Sergei Loznitsa's latest work, 'Oasis: Don't look back in anger' about the band Oasis, Wim Wenders' focus on architect Peter Zumthor, and a film about Everest.

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And it tells this story using artificial intelligence in a provocative and original way, putting at the center of the debate the limits between human creativity and technology, as well as between the real and the artificial.