Sundance Institute's Story Forum: Exploring Art and Innovation is a space to learn, collaborate, and join the conversation; inviting thoughtful dialogue about the artist-first tools and technologies supporting visual storytelling today.
Emmy-nominated filmmaker Eliza McNitt unpacks the creation of ANCESTRA, her 2025 short film made in collaboration with Google’s DeepMind team. McNitt and collaborator Ben Wiley, Creative Director at the Google Creative Lab, will discuss how the pair blended live action performances with generative AI visuals to tell a deeply personal story. The film, executive produced by Darren Aronofsky, premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. A Sundance Film Festival alum, McNitt has described the project as the story of how “a mother’s love becomes a cosmic force in order to save her daughter’s life.”
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Director, ANCESTRA
McNitt is a writer and director. A pioneer of fusing storytelling and emerging technology, she is an Emmy Awards Finalist and recipient of the VR Grand Prize at The Venice Film Festival. From astronauts to astrophysics, McNitt explores the cosmic collision of science and art. She is the creator of SPHERES, a VR journey through the hidden songs of the Universe, Executive Produced by Darren Aronofsky, starring Millie Bobby Brown, Jessica Chastain, and Patti Smith. SPHERES made history as the first VR acquisition out of Sundance. Her latest short film, ANCESTRA, is a groundbreaking collaboration with Darren Aronofsky’s newest venture Primordial Soup and Google DeepMind — combining live-action and generative AI to tell a story of an expectant mother who draws on the strength of all that came before — past matriarchs to dying stars — to transform her love into a cosmic force to save her daughter’s life. McNitt’s work has appeared at Sundance, SXSW, AFI Fest, Cannes, CPH:DOX, Tribeca, Telluride, and Venice.
more...Creative Director, Google Creative Lab
Ben Wiley is a creative director at the Google Creative Lab focused on shaping emerging technology. With a background in storytelling and filmmaking, he’s worked on everything from music videos and album launches to TED Talks and documentaries to big brand commercials, weird experiments, and everything in between. Lately, he’s been dedicated to making a dent in the universe of AI — creatively hacking models, building filmmaking tools for the AI era and finding ways to this new technology can help expand human imagination.
more...Moderator | Digital Course & Event Producer, Sundance Collab
Soheil Rezayazdi is a Digital Course & Event Producer at the Sundance Institute, where he produces multi-session courses, master classes, filmmaker Q&As, and other digital programs for Sundance Collab. Prior to Sundance, Soheil served as the Nonfiction Programs Manager at the Gotham Film & Media Institute. He oversaw the Gotham’s core documentary programs: the Documentary Feature Lab, the Spotlight on Documentaries project market, and the Documentary Development Initiative in partnership with HBO Documentary Films. Soheil has worked with emerging filmmakers since 2015, when he began a seven-year tenure at the Columbia University MFA Film Program. At Columbia he managed the Columbia University Film Festival (CUFF), the Dr. Saul and Dorothy Kit Film Noir Festival, and the Carla Kuhn Memorial Speaker Series.
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