Most industry discussions about AI have focused considerable energy on whether AI is a threat or an opportunity, a tool or a menace—or headed straight into boosterism. Meanwhile, the actual terms of its integration into documentary workflow are being set without us: in editing suites, in platform algorithms, and in the compute infrastructure being built on extracted data and contested labor. For the past year, Kat Cizek (MIT Co-Creation Studio) and shirin anlen (WITNESS) have been tracking these developments through a monthly column in Documentary magazine and as part of the steering committee of the AI + Documentary Working Group. In this session, Cizek and anlen will present two case studies of AI in recent documentary practice, map the emerging field of movement-building in response to the AI industrial complex (from open-source alternatives to grassroots resistance against the environmental costs of data centers), and open the conversation to panelists working at the intersection of AI, documentary, and advocacy beyond North America.
This panel conversation is paired with a workshop ("AI Tools for Documentary Production") facilitated by Jorge Caballero and Anna Giralt Gris, which will demonstrate how documentarians can use AI to create research, investigative, and workflow tools that work for us, by us. Conferencegoers are encouraged to attend both if they're interested in the practical and ethical applications of AI.
Moderator: Kat Cizek (MIT Co-Creation Studio)
Panelists: shirin anlen (WITNESS), Anna Giralt Gris (Artefacto), and A.X. Mina (Archival Producers Alliance)
Biographies:
AX Mina (she/they) is a special advisor for the Archival Producers Alliance and is director and producer of Rubbish: The Queer Kingdom of Leilah Babirye. She is a Senior Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg School for Journalism and Communications and member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia and the Asian American Documentary Network. She was a 2024 Sundance Trans Possibilities Intensive Fellow and has spoken at Sundance Collab, DOCNYC, the Atlanta Film Society and other industry events. She also works in nonprofit local news and media and arts philanthropy.
Anna Giralt Gris is a filmmaker, producer, and researcher exploring the intersection of cinema, emerging technologies, and creative innovation. She is the co-founder and CEO of Artefacto, a Barcelona-based research and production studio focused on tech-driven methodologies and new narrative models. Her work has been selected at TIFF, NYFF, IFFR, CPH:DOX, SXSW, or IDFA among many. Her latest project “Membrana” was a finalist for the Lumen Prize 2025.
Katerina Cizek is an influential figure in international media as a Peabody- and 2x Emmy-winning documentarian, author, producer, and senior leader working with collective processes and emergent technologies. She is senior research scientist, artistic director and co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. At the studio, she wrote (with Uricchio et al.) the world’s first field study on co-creating media called Collective Wisdom (MIT Press in 2022). At the studio, she designs co-creation workshops, research, delegations and fellowships fusing art, documentary and journalism together with emergent tech and science through the practice of collective creation. For over a decade, Cizek worked as a documentary director at the National Film Board of Canada, transforming the organization into a world-leading digital hub, with the projects HIGHRISE and Filmmaker-in-Residence. Cizek’s earlier award-winning human rights documentary film projects instigated criminal investigations, changed UN policies, and screened as evidence at an International Criminal Tribunal. She is currently the chair of Interactive Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards. Cizek holds a PhD in Visual Culture from University of Westminster, London, U.K. A vibrant speaker and a trusted advisor, she is often tapped by media organizations and government for advisory and committee positions. She has been appointed to the 2026 Canadian Federal Advisory Panel to modernize the country’s screen agencies.
shirin anlen is an award-winning creative technologist and AI expert specializing in deepfakes and ethical technology. She is the AI Research Technologist and Impact Manager at WITNESS, where she leads research and strategy on AI detection and the human rights implications of audiovisual AI in high-stakes contexts such as elections, conflict, and human rights abuses.
Most industry discussions about AI have focused considerable energy on whether AI is a threat or an opportunity, a tool or a menace—or headed straight into boosterism. Meanwhile, the actual terms of its integration into documentary workflow are being set without us: in editing suites, in platform algorithms, and in the compute infrastructure being built on extracted data and contested labor. For the past year, Kat Cizek (MIT Co-Creation Studio) and shirin anlen (WITNESS) have been tracking these developments through a monthly column in Documentary magazine and as part of the steering committee of the AI + Documentary Working Group. In this session, Cizek and anlen will present two case studies of AI in recent documentary practice, map the emerging field of movement-building in response to the AI industrial complex (from open-source alternatives to grassroots resistance against the environmental costs of data centers), and open the conversation to panelists working at the intersection of AI, documentary, and advocacy beyond North America.
This panel conversation is paired with a workshop ("AI Tools for Documentary Production") facilitated by Jorge Caballero and Anna Giralt Gris, which will demonstrate how documentarians can use AI to create research, investigative, and workflow tools that work for us, by us. Conferencegoers are encouraged to attend both if they're interested in the practical and ethical applications of AI.
Moderator: Kat Cizek (MIT Co-Creation Studio)
Panelists: shirin anlen (WITNESS), Anna Giralt Gris (Artefacto), and A.X. Mina (Archival Producers Alliance)
Biographies:
AX Mina (she/they) is a special advisor for the Archival Producers Alliance and is director and producer of Rubbish: The Queer Kingdom of Leilah Babirye. She is a Senior Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg School for Journalism and Communications and member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia and the Asian American Documentary Network. She was a 2024 Sundance Trans Possibilities Intensive Fellow and has spoken at Sundance Collab, DOCNYC, the Atlanta Film Society and other industry events. She also works in nonprofit local news and media and arts philanthropy.
Anna Giralt Gris is a filmmaker, producer, and researcher exploring the intersection of cinema, emerging technologies, and creative innovation. She is the co-founder and CEO of Artefacto, a Barcelona-based research and production studio focused on tech-driven methodologies and new narrative models. Her work has been selected at TIFF, NYFF, IFFR, CPH:DOX, SXSW, or IDFA among many. Her latest project “Membrana” was a finalist for the Lumen Prize 2025.
Katerina Cizek is an influential figure in international media as a Peabody- and 2x Emmy-winning documentarian, author, producer, and senior leader working with collective processes and emergent technologies. She is senior research scientist, artistic director and co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentary Lab. At the studio, she wrote (with Uricchio et al.) the world’s first field study on co-creating media called Collective Wisdom (MIT Press in 2022). At the studio, she designs co-creation workshops, research, delegations and fellowships fusing art, documentary and journalism together with emergent tech and science through the practice of collective creation. For over a decade, Cizek worked as a documentary director at the National Film Board of Canada, transforming the organization into a world-leading digital hub, with the projects HIGHRISE and Filmmaker-in-Residence. Cizek’s earlier award-winning human rights documentary film projects instigated criminal investigations, changed UN policies, and screened as evidence at an International Criminal Tribunal. She is currently the chair of Interactive Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards. Cizek holds a PhD in Visual Culture from University of Westminster, London, U.K. A vibrant speaker and a trusted advisor, she is often tapped by media organizations and government for advisory and committee positions. She has been appointed to the 2026 Canadian Federal Advisory Panel to modernize the country’s screen agencies.
shirin anlen is an award-winning creative technologist and AI expert specializing in deepfakes and ethical technology. She is the AI Research Technologist and Impact Manager at WITNESS, where she leads research and strategy on AI detection and the human rights implications of audiovisual AI in high-stakes contexts such as elections, conflict, and human rights abuses.
