In a previous post, I outlined how AI is beginning to transform the economics and practice of filmmaking—not in one sweeping revolution, but in targeted incursions. Formats like animation, corporate video, real estate marketing, and low-budget television are already seeing substantial automation. The tools are getting faster, cheaper, and better. The edge cases are becoming the mainstream.
Among the most interesting areas of disruption is documentary production. AI tools now assist in research, in scripting, in editing and distribution. A fast-growing community of creators is already producing AI-assisted short documentaries that would have been economically or technically out of reach just a year ago.
But this isn’t just about efficiency or access. When it comes to documentary, we’re not only reinventing a format. We’re beginning to reinvent history itself.
At Generation Studios, we’re inventing the future of history. We’ve been building a system that doesn’t just automate production—it invites participation. It’s called Spell, and it allows anyone to turn spoken memory into film.
Most people don’t see themselves as filmmakers. Many don’t even see themselves as storytellers. But they do see themselves as characters in stories they remember: their childhood, their migration, their work, their grief, their joy. These stories are real. They just haven’t been captured—until now.
Spell works like a good interviewer. It listens as you speak. It asks follow-up questions that draw out detail, context, and emotional texture. It mirrors the best practices of journalism in original reporting, psychology in empathic listening, and cinema in visual thinking. From that conversation, it constructs a short script. That script becomes a storyboard. That storyboard becomes a film.
If you have photos or old video clips, Spell can use them. If you don’t, it can draw on historical imagery and AI-generated visuals that reflect the time and place you’re remembering. The goal is not to fabricate, but to visualize—to help people see what they’ve carried in their minds for years.
Because AI radically lowers the cost of production, we’re able to open up the historical record to a much broader range of voices. It’s no longer just institutions or production companies that get to decide what is documented and remembered. It’s families. It’s communities. It’s individuals.
This is a profound shift—not just in media, but in memory. What we’re making is not simply a tool for personal storytelling. It’s a new kind of historical authorship.
It’s free to try. A ten-minute conversation is enough to generate a working script. From there, the choice is yours: leave it as a transcript, or turn it into a living, moving piece of personal history.
We don’t just think this will change documentary. We think it will literally make history.
Read the full post at Generation Studios: You Remember It. We Help You See It →