Raindance talk and discussion at The Canon Venue Piccadilly. Raindance Film Festival continues up to and including June 26 2026 at The Vue Cinema Lower Regent Street.

“AI and Gender Inclusion with Women in Film and TV UK,” Panel – Katie Bailiff, Viviane D’Avilla, Katharina Gellein Viken and Georgina Cammalleri

AI has been around for a lot longer than people realize and now it has filtered gradually into the mass public sphere and is actively employed more than ever especially in film making and any visual communication including of course, material featured on social media.

The title of this well networked and informed discussion must not be misunderstood. Though one of the panel has made a film in Brazil about people born as “dual gender” and “inter gender “she has only just started to use AI in her follow up film which covers Shamans in The Amazon.

This talk was about the gender issue of female filmmakers being less drawn to AI initially than male filmmakers as AI employs “cheating” methods and cheating is abhorrent to women! This behavior was clarified to be “imposter syndrome” which broadly speaking defines much using AI material which has stimulated or made curious all those who have had sight or indeed sound of it. But women are now onboard and doing courses or swotting up for very many hours to create their own films with the use of this app. The audience at the talk were shown short films including using a female dancer who then has an AI transmission with the looks of a pop star doing the same dance moves using the amazing technology. Another short film used a lobster uploading pictures of a real one onto AI to tell the lobster’s individual sea to restaurant story and ultimate escape, Then we see a gang full of cartoon style dress and decor AI’d to supply a bullied person giving protection by the AI fantasy gang. In addition a film involving natural inhabitants of the rain forest prompted the filmmaker to source AI images to highlight the material she had chosen to document.

Writers are probably the people who hate AI most of maybe a decreasing amount of people who “hate AI” but it is because AI can generate film scripts and stories and in a worst case scenario sample or steal your script. As for the Academy Awards – they have banned handing out awards to AI actors. Apparently AI sits very well in post production and speeds up the process of completing a film ready for screening. However it is currently expensive to employ. The undermining influence of AI is that genuine content cannot be believed.

In conclusion the value of a “human film” will be worth ten times more because of AI. AND you can put a “human made” mark on your films and scripts if they are NOT generated by AI. I think AI is here to stay and will increase its influence on the age of the lens in the future. The discussion panel and films and ultimate audience questions all accumulated to make a very satisfactory afternoon. Anyone who wants to look up software and teach themselves AI or join a course, google and find the material and information that suits you best. 

ENJOY

Penny Nair Price