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.

AI is entering storytelling, but the real question is not whether machines can generate scenes. It’s whether we can use AI to help humans build better stories: more coherent, more original, and more emotionally honest. This panel explores how narratology (the study of story structure, meaning, and form) can guide human-centered AI tools toward new plot structures for the modern age, beyond inherited templates like the Hero’s Journey. This session will examine how creators can keep the moving parts of a story legible, stress-test decisions, and discover new shapes without flattening the original voice.