Bringing Dorothea Lange’s Sealed Photographs to Life: Giovanni Abitante’s Runner-Up Mockumentary ‘I Am an American’

What did AI enable you to do in your film that would have been impossible—or unimaginable—without it?

Giovanni Abitante: I brought Dorothea Lange’s photos back to life. It feels like I co-directed the documentary with her. I gave new life to a reality that has very few surviving video documents. Many of the photos were hidden for years by the U.S. government.

Did your vision for the film change once you started working with AI tools? If so, how?

Giovanni Abitante: No. Most of the work was writing, research, and documentary groundwork. That was the heart of the project. The rest is just technique. I use tools to express something—but the message always comes first.

How did AI shape the emotional tone or atmosphere of your film? Was that an intentional choice or a surprise outcome?

Giovanni Abitante: AI helped bring the people from the American concentration camps back to life. When a photo starts to move, it feels closer to us. It feels more human.I made Dorothea Lange’s photographs move, and also created cinematic scenes featuring the people in those photos—placing them inside realistic environments, always with respect for historical context.

That was when I discovered something: when we start with real, specific material and use AI to expand on it, the video has a soul. But if you ask AI to make something from nothing, it feels empty—not real, not documentary.

Were there any limitations with current AI tools that you had to creatively work around?

Giovanni Abitante: No limits. I studied every technical constraint before I began. So I had no problems. Pre-production is the new post-production.

I Am an American by Giovanni Abitante

If you could re-do one part of your film with next-gen AI capabilities, what would you revisit—and why?

Giovanni Abitante: Nothing. The film is complete as it is. Every AI project I create is born exactly when it needs to be. For me, it’s about experiment and research. I don’t care about future tools—because if I did, maybe I’d stop creating.

What does winning the MetaMorph AI Film Award mean to you, especially at this moment in the evolution of storytelling technology?

Giovanni Abitante: Three years ago, I never imagined something like the MetaMorph AI Film Award could happen to me. I love challenges, and I felt that same spark when I started working with AI video. Now, thanks to this new movement, I’m living a second life—one where my ideas can be seen and appreciated, even at major festivals like Meta Morph AI Film.