At the intersection of AI and film, generative tools are fundamentally changing our relationship with the moving image. This excerpt from my book, AI Cinematic Realism, dives into those shifts to help define the future of cinematic truth. 

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We are moving into a future where realism will no longer be defined by its proximity to the world, but by its ability to simulate presence, affect, and authorship. Whether that future deepens our understanding or clouds it will depend on how critically we engage with what we’re seeing—and with what we’ve stopped noticing.

The establishment of AI Cinematic Realism as a field is not just an academic exercise. It is a necessary response to a cultural transformation already underway. The moving image—once the trace of the real—has become a site where the real and the synthetic intertwine.

To understand and navigate this new terrain, we need to stop asking the forensic question: “Is this real?”

That question belongs to the era of the camera. It belongs to the logic of evidence.

The more meaningful question—the question of cinematic truth—is: “Is this true?”

Does the image carry narrative truth? Does it hold emotional weight? Does it use the unique affordances of the machine—its hallucinations, its fluidity, its dream logic—to say something a camera never could?

A Call for Collaboration

This is why AI Cinematic Realism matters. It allows us to ask new questions: not just Who made this? but What system shaped this illusion of truth, of coherence, of perspective?

Answering these questions will require collaboration. Scholars of film and media studies need to engage with technologists; philosophers must dialogue with artists; ethicists must listen to industry practitioners. Only through such cross-disciplinary exchange can we develop frameworks adequate to the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Just as early film theorists had to invent new categories to understand montage, sound, or color, we now need a vocabulary adequate to AI’s transformation of the moving image.

From Forgery to Filmmaking

The deepfake panic exists because bad actors attempt to force AI video into the domain of captured reality. They want it to pass as evidence. They want deception.

This genre is inherently ethical because it refuses that premise. By establishing AI Cinematic Realism as a genre with a recognizable aesthetic—one that privileges emotional resonance over photorealistic mimicry—we introduce a safety layer of style.

When the goal is not to trick the eye but to move the heart, we exit the uncanny valley. We stop being forgers and start being filmmakers.

That is the promise of AI Cinematic Realism. It is not a replacement for cinema. It is a new language for it.

The realism of the future is ours to shape.

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If these ideas resonate with you, the full manifesto explores the intersection of film theory, practice, and ethics in greater detail. 

You can access the AI Cinematic Realism book on Amazon.