Welcome to The AI Literacy Hub. This is a curated space built specifically for independent storytellers navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence. In an era where technology changes by the week, our goal isn’t to replace human artistry, but to protect and empower it.
Launched as part of Sundance Institute’s product-agnostic AI Literacy Initiative, this Hub provides free, accessible resources to demystify AI. Explore practical tools and services, ethical guidelines, and expert insights designed to help you navigate systemic challenges while keeping human expression at the center of your craft. The library of content is a foundation, not a finished destination. We will continue to add timely resources as the technology and the conversations surrounding it evolve.
We believe that it's important to understand, to evaluate, to decide what's right for you, and ultimately, to collectively shape the future.
Featured Resources
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Glossary of Terms
A working vocabulary for humans working in film, television, and content creation. Updated continuously, with major revisions published quarterly.
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AI Impact Visualizer
Compare how more than 60 AI technologies and capabilities modify over 150 industry roles, grounded in expert review and worker testimony.
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Impact Surveyor
Select your role, review the current impact scores, and quickly confirm, challenge, or expand what the industry is reporting.
Find Your Starting Point
Featured Courses & Events
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Real Documentaries, Synthetic Media: How Filmmakers are Using GenAI
AX Mina
Join us for an exclusive conversation with the Archival Producers Alliance that will dive deep into the ethics and logistics of incorporating generative AI into documentary films with tangible examples of how established documentary filmmakers have chosen to engage with this new technology.
FREE
Event Recording
Exploring AI with the Creators Coalition on AI (CCAI): September 2026
Ted Tremper
Join Sundance Collab and the Creators Coalition on AI (CCAI) for the second installment of our quarterly series spotlighting the coalition’s work at the intersection of creativity and artificial intelligence.
FREE
Video
Legal Toolkit for Producers Using AI
Elsa Ramo
As AI tools become more widely available, they also raise questions about ethical boundaries and legal concerns. Led by veteran entertainment attorney Elsa Ramo, this one-hour session covers important guidelines to follow when using AI in your filmmaking workflow. You’ll gain a clearer understanding of common pitfalls and red flags in AI generative content and what guardrails need to be established when it comes to ethics, ownership and technical safeguards. This session provides an overview of different AI use cases in various aspects from development, packaging, production, and distribution.
FREE
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Designing Interactive Worlds Through Immersive Storytelling
Alton Glass
Led by Alton Glass, founder of GRX Immersive Labs, this session illustrates how filmmakers can become world builders using case studies from Glass’ own work. You’ll learn how to translate your unique voice across new tools and platforms and gain a greater understanding of how creators can successfully use virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality with intention to empower others. Drawing from his own career, which spans film XR, AI and immersive education, Glass unpacks how creators can navigate rapid technological change without losing their creative identity.
FREE
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Storycraft in the Age of AI: Narratology, Structure and the Human Voice
Joseph Couch
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.
FREE
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The Generative Lens: Gary Hustwit on Storytelling Beyond the Timeline
Gary Hustwit
Trailblazing independent filmmaker Gary Hustwit joins Story Forum for a conversation on art, innovation, and experimentation in the age of AI. Hustwit directed Eno, a 2024 documentary that employed generative technology to create a unique cut of the film for each screening. The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, went on to receive six nominations from Cinema Eye Honors, and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. In this moderated conversation, Hustwit discusses how he conceptualized and created the film, the challenges of incorporating bespoke tech into his filmmaking practice, and his predictions on the future intersections of film and technology.
FREE
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The AI Landscape: Critical Debates and Creative Pathways for Independent Filmmakers
Alex Rivera
Sundance Film Festival alum and honoree Alex Rivera (Sleep Dealer, The Infiltrators) joins Story Forum to explore the critical debates surrounding AI and filmmaking. In this session, Rivera delivers a presentation on how thoughtful, socially-engaged filmmakers can approach this moment in which AI has become ubiquitous in modern life. Rivera speaks about the history and various debates surrounding AI, explores creative workflows, and discusses whether this technology can open up new possibilities in our creative practice.
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Spotlight
Producers Diane Becker and Ted Tremper on Making THE AI DOC
Diane Becker
In this conversation, we’ll dive deep into the unique production challenges of capturing a subject – AI – that changes by the hour. We’ll examine finding your creative vision, maintaining editorial independence with high-stakes documentary participants, and the ethics of AI in filmmaking.
FREE
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Tackling the Ethics of AI Through the Making of GHOST IN THE MACHINE: Part 1
Alix Dunn
In the first of two Story Forum sessions on the film, Veatch presents a deep-dive into the making of her documentary as well as the technology’s implications with regards to racial discrimination and climate devastation. During this session, Veatch leads two panel discussions with five participants from the documentary: Thema Monroe-White, Tiera Tanksley, Johnathan Flowers, Alli Finn, and Alix Dunn. These conversations offer insight into finding and shaping your story with your documentary participants, and prove essential for those interested in the systems surrounding the development of AI.
FREE
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Tackling the Ethics of AI Through the Making of GHOST IN THE MACHINE: Part 2
Krystal Kauffman
In the second of two Story Forum sessions on the film, Veatch presents a deep-dive into the making of her documentary as well as the technology’s implications with regards to international labor issues. During this session, Veatch leads a panel discussion with four participants from the documentary: Richard Mathenge, Mophat Okiny, Krystal Kauffman, and Dr. Milagros Miceli. This conversation offers insight into finding and shaping your story with your documentary participants, and proves essential for those interested in the systems surrounding the development of AI.
FREE
Video
The Machine is Not the Artist: The Evolution of Storytelling Across AI, VR & AR
Yelena Rachitsky
Award-winning creatives Yelena Rachitsky (Head of Emerging Formats, Meta) and Eliza McNitt (Director, ANCESTRA, SPHERES) deconstruct their ground-breaking projects and examine how emerging technologies are reshaping cinematic language. Explore the evolution from VR to AI — and why human authorship remains at the center of storytelling.
FREE
Video
AI for Documentary Filmmakers: Research, Transcripts, and Trust
Kristina Budelis
In this session, led by director, producer, and entrepreneur Kristina Budelis, you’ll learn some of the new ways documentary teams are using AI, with a focus on behind-the-scenes use. Budelis, who writes the newsletter Film Robots on AI & Film, will explain how these tools helped her save time in prep and post on a viral episode of PBS x Atlas Obscura’s Untold Earth, “It Looks Like a Desert. But It Has Thousands of Lakes,” which she’ll use as a case study in this presentation. She’ll break down how she used tools like Granola, ElevenLabs, Chat GPT, and Claude for things like research, transcription, translation and temp narration. She’ll also go over the importance of guardrails in regards to things like consent, disclosure, privacy and data considerations. You’ll leave the session with practical takeaways for how to improve your own documentary workflow, save time, and facilitate collaboration.
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The Independent Screenwriter’s Guide to AI Assistance
Bryan Hill
Find new ways to bring your ideas to life without waiting for a greenlight from the powers-that-be. In this session, you will discover how LLMs (Language Learning Models) can support your creative process in ideation, research, and drafting while maintaining authorship of your work. Filmmakers Bryan Hill and Julius Pryor IV will walk you through using Generative AI tools as an assistant to help streamline your journey from script to pre-production.
FREE
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The Future of Storytelling with Charles Melcher
Charles Melcher
In this session, you’ll find out how these new formats turn people from passive viewers into active participants whose choices, movement, and emotions shape the experience itself, moving from a traditional audience to an “actience.” You’ll get a practical framework for building immersive, responsible, and transformative narratives, and you’ll learn how changing how you think about your audience can empower them to have more agency and influence on their stories, their lives, and how they interact with the world.
FREE
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Exploring AI with It Writes Itself: The AI Variety Show & Creativity Workshop
Mike Jacobson
Join us for a hands-on session designed to demystify generative AI through creativity, humor, and experimentation. Whether you're AI-curious or AI-cautious, through a series of fun, surprising experiments, you'll experience first-hand how generative AI intersects with the creative process.
FREE
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The Poetry of the Prompt: AI Storytelling and the Making of ANCESTRA
Eliza McNitt
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, 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.”
FREE
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DEAR UPSTAIRS NEIGHBORS: Exploring Artist-Driven, AI-Assisted Expressionistic Animation
Connie He
Join the team behind Dear Upstairs Neighbors for a screening and deep dive into artist-centric, AI-assisted animation workflows. This short film blends traditional animation with abstract expressionism using innovative video-to-video techniques. Learn how animation veterans and researchers at Google DeepMind developed custom AI models to transform hand-crafted art and music into "living paintings" while maintaining total creative control.
FREE
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Behind the Short: GenAI Filmmaking and Collaborating With Your Team | Presented by Adobe
Taryn O’Neill
Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at how generative tools can support independent artists in making their films. Go inside the process as the team behind the short film MythOS breaks down how they leveraged generative technologies, organized their workflows, and tackled key challenges. This session highlights the steps and decisions that shaped their film, showing what collaboration looks like when incorporating AI tools, and how AI can enhance an artist’s creativity and streamline the path to a finished film.
FREE
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Making of a Movement: Meet the Creators Coalition on AI
Justin Trevor Winters
Founding members of the Creators Coalition on AI (CCAI) share their groundbreaking initiative to develop standards and best practices for artificial intelligence use in entertainment. Gain candid insights into the organization's mission to create ethical guidelines and artistic protections for creators. The session includes breakfast.
FREE
Video
WHISPERS: An Interactive Murder Mystery Experience
Bernie Su
Experience the SAG-AFTRA-approved, AI-driven interactive thriller Whispers. This social session includes a murder mystery experience, food and refreshments, and insights into the future of generative interactive narrative from Peabody and three-time Primetime Emmy-Award winning creator and showrunner Bernie Su, Pickford AI CEO Stephen Piron, product manager Harrison Sanborn, and actor Stephen A. Chang.
FREE
AI Pulse
Share your perspective. Your responses help us understand what the community is thinking about AI and inform future programming with the AI Literacy Alliance.
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