This weekend at the Camden International Film Festival, the Archival Producers Alliance (APA) released the first-ever industry-wide guidelines for generative artificial intelligence use in documentary film. GenAI is a thorny topic throughout the film and TV world, but it poses specific and unique challenges to nonfiction, where primary sources, historical documentation, and archival imagery are fundamental building blocks.

The guidelines address this threat directly in its introduction: “The APA believes that the survival of the documentary industry — in all of its power and promise to help us understand and interpret our history and our present — is contingent on maintaining a truthful and transparent relationship with viewers.”

APA GenAI Best Practices

Article :IndieWire article