PBS Doc Uses GenAI to Animate Black Revolutionaries
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- "Declarations: Black Americans and the Revolutionary War" premieres June 29 at 10pm ET on PBS after a Sunday world premiere in New York City, timed to the United States' 250th birthday
- Directors Stacey Holman and Maya Tepler used generative AI to animate oil paintings of four Black historical subjects: James Lafayette, Harry Washington, Elizabeth Freeman, and Abraham Peyton Skipwith
- The filmmakers turned to AI because existing Revolutionary-era imagery of Black Americans is "limited and limiting," with prior portrayals either "faceless in fields" or caricatured as "subservient property"
- Artist and researcher Hudson Campbell painted the portraits "rooted in accurate historical context" and "based on actual portraiture," then used AI tools to animate them while preserving his artistic style
- Historical advisors Colonial Williamsburg re-enactor Stephen Seals, National Humanities Medal recipient Dr. Ed Ayers, and Oscar-nominated doc filmmaker Sam Pollard vetted the work
- The documentary is not the first Revolutionary War project to use genAI — Darren Aronofsky's Primordial Soup studio and Time Magazine released the animated series "On This Day… 1776" in January via YouTube
- Reader comments on the article push back on the AI approach, with one writing "Could've used black actors. But why pay people?" and another declaring "I will never watch AI slop. Never."
Why it matters: This positions a PBS documentary as a potential industry template for ethically using generative AI in historical storytelling, where traditional archives often depicted Black subjects as caricatures. But reader comments already push back, with one writing: "Could've used black actors."
