Abstract 

This article traces a unified research trajectory across two projects by the author: a 2018 PhD thesis investigating Kracauerian cinematic realism (KCR) through film practice (Life-world Series, 2017) and the 2026 framework of AI Cinematic Realism. The trajectory evolves from redemption of the Lebenswelt (life-world) via photographic indexicality to synthetic redemption of emotional truth through AI-generated imagery. Bridging Siegfried Kracauer’s phenomenalist-realist film theory with posthuman phenomenology, the projects demonstrate methodological continuity in practice-based inquiry. KCR’s seven tropes—quotidian, transient, refuse, fortuitous, indeterminate, flow of life, the spiritual life itself—serve as a diagnostic grid, testing realism’s migration from lens-based to synthetic media. Implications for film theory, AI ethics, and post-photographic aesthetics are discussed. 

Keywords: cinematic realism, Kracauer, phenomenology, AI cinema, Lebenswelt, emotional plausibility 

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The evolution of cinematic realism demands frameworks that accommodate technological rupture without abandoning philosophical depth. This article articulates a unified research trajectory spanning the author’s 2018 doctoral thesis (Gutierrez, 2018) and 2026 manifesto on AI Cinematic Realism (Gutierrez, 2026). The former redeems physical reality through film practice; the latter extends this redemption to emotional truth in synthetic media. Methodologically unified by practice-based phenomenology and Siegfried Kracauer’s theory of film (Kracauer, 1960/1997), the projects probe realism’s core: not mere resemblance, but intuitive renewal of lived experience amid modern abstraction. 

Kracauerian Foundations: The 2018 Thesis and Life-world Series 

Gutierrez’s (2018) thesis, Investigating Kracauerian Cinematic Realism Through Film Practice and Criticism: Life-world Series (2017) and Selected Films of Lino Brocka, operationalizes Kracauer’s Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality (1960/1997). Kracauer posits cinema’s redemptive potential in its photographic affinity for the Lebenswelt—Husserl’s pre-reflective life-world of flux, contingency, and intuition (Husserl, 1970)—countering modernity’s abstracting rationality (Aitken, 2001). 

The thesis innovates by treating filmmaking as methodology, producing Life-world Series (2017, 118 min), an omnibus of 10 shorts investigating seven KCR tropes: (a) quotidian, (b) transient, (c) refuse, (d) fortuitous, (e) indeterminate, (f) flow of life, and (g) the spiritual life itself (Gutierrez, 2018, p. 57-67). These tropes, distilled from Kracauer’s affinities and objects, interweave with Lebenswelt characteristics derived phenomenologically: expansive, multi-layered, flowing, in the process of becoming, resonantly intersubjective, a thing of beauty, relating to essences, cyclical, transcendent, meaning-laden, fragmented, malleable (Gutierrez, 2018, p. ii). 

Practice yields the Integrated Quadrant Model of Kracauerian Cinematic Realism (IQMKCR), positioning KCR within phenomenalist-realist film theory (Aitken, 2016). Supplemented by Brocka criticism, the thesis affirms film’s redemptive agency: contemplative encounter with physical reality fosters intuitive grasp of life’s flow, redeeming abstraction (Gutierrez, 2018, pp. 175–179). 

The AI Rupture: From Indexicality to Emotional Plausibility 

AI-generated cinema severs indexicality—photography’s light-trace bond (Bazin, 1967)—producing images from data patterns, not events (Gutierrez, 2026, p. 17). Gutierrez (2026) diagnoses this as ontological rupture: no lens captures “what has been”; algorithms synthesize “what could be.” Realism shifts from forensic proof to emotional plausibility (p. 45)—stylistic coherence evoking affective resonance under felt scrutiny. 

The Research Arc: Methodological and Theoretical Linkages 

The projects form a coherent research arc, evolving realism’s redemption across media regimes (see Table 1). 

Table 1 
Linkages Across the Research Arc 

Dimension	2018 Thesis (Life-world Series)	2026 AI Cinematic Realism
Core Question	Can film redeem Lebenswelt?	Can AI redeem emotional truth?
Methodology	Research-based production (10 shorts)	Prompt-based generative practice
Diagnostic Grid	7 KCR tropes + 12 Lebenswelt traits	Same tropes test synthetic resonance
Redemption Object	Physical reality (indexical)	Emotional truth (plausible)
Philosophical Base	Husserl/Kant via Kracauer (phenomenalist-realist)	Merleau-Ponty + Extended Mind (posthuman account of realism)
Key Output	IQMKCR model	8-point Manifesto + 3 Commitments

Note: Adapted from Gutierrez (2018, p. 173) and Gutierrez (2026, pp. 30, 44). 

KCR tropes persist as invariants: AI must evoke quotidian flux or indeterminate shimmer, not mimic optics (Gutierrez, 2026, p. 36). Life-world Series‘ emergent design—pre-production (Kracauer research), principal photography (Lebenswelt as subject), post-production (trope analysis)—mirrors AI workflows: prompting (ideational framing), generation (synthetic assembly), curation (ethical selection). Both treat practice as theory-building, expanding trope inventories phenomenologically. 

Theoretical Extension: Posthuman Phenomenology 

The arc bridges Kracauer’s Husserlian Lebenswelt (Aitken, 2006) to Merleau-Ponty’s account of embodied perception (Merleau-Ponty, 1962/1968). In parallel, extended mind theory (Clark & Chalmers, 1998) provides a complementary philosophy of distributed cognition, allowing AI to be understood not as a tool but as a cognitive extension. Read together, these traditions support a posthuman account of realism in which agency is co-constructed across human–machine systems. 

The Manifesto operationalizes this: “Imperfection is proof of conscious assembly” (Principle IV); “Emotion can be engineered” (Principle V; Gutierrez, 2026, p. 31-32). Three Commitments—ontological stakes, accountable authorship, emotional plausibility—echo IQMKCR’s quadrants, ensuring ethical migration (Gutierrez, 2026, p. 44-45). 

Implications for Film Theory and AI Ethics 

This research arc reorients realism from ontology to phenomenology: redemption inheres in spectatorial intuition, not mechanical fidelity (Gutierrez, 2018, p. 165; Gutierrez, 2026, p. 56). Ethically, it counters deepfake panic via genre markers—glitches signaling synthesis—transforming “forgery to filmmaking” (Gutierrez, 2026, p. 59). Theoretically, KCR tropes diagnose AI’s limits: can synthetic media capture “the spiritual life itself” (Kracauer, 1960/1997, p. 309) without embodiment? 

Future research might empirically test trope resonance in AI cinema vs. traditional film viewers, or model IQMKCR’s extension to generative architectures. 

Conclusion 

The transition from the 2018 investigation of the Lebenswelt to the 2026 framework of AI Cinematic Realism marks a fundamental shift in the ontology of the moving image. By bridging Kracauer’s phenomenalist-realist theory with posthuman phenomenology, this research arc demonstrates that realism is not a static property of the medium, but a dynamic quality of spectatorial intuition. While the technological rupture of AI severs the traditional photographic “light-trace,” the persistence of Kracauer’s seven tropes—from the quotidian to the spiritual—provides a vital diagnostic grid for ensuring that synthetic media remains anchored in human experience.

Ultimately, the “redemption” sought in this trajectory evolves from the preservation of physical reality to the cultivation of emotional plausibility. By operationalizing the Integrated Quadrant Model (IQMKCR) within generative workflows, filmmakers can move beyond the “deepfake” binary of truth versus forgery. Instead, AI cinema emerges as a cognitive extension capable of engineering affective resonance and ethical accountability. This research concludes that even in a post-photographic era, the core mission of cinematic realism remains unchanged: to renew our encounter with the flow of life and to find, within the “refuse” and “transience” of the digital shimmer, a profound reflection of our shared existence.

References 

Aitken, I. (2001). European film theory and cinema: A critical introduction. Indiana University Press. 

Aitken, I. (2006). Realist film theory and cinema: The nineteenth-century Lukács, Bazin and Kracauer in dialogue. Manchester University Press. 

Aitken, I. (2016). The major realist film theorists: Bazin, Kracauer, Grierson and Lukács. Bloomsbury Academic. 

Bazin, A. (1967). What is cinema? Vol. 1 (H. Gray, Trans.). University of California Press. (Original work published 1958) 

Clark, A., & Chalmers, D. (1998). The extended mind. Analysis, 58(1), 7–19. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/58.1.7 

Gutierrez, J., III. (2018). Investigating Kracauerian cinematic realism through film practice and criticism: Life-world series (2017) and selected films of Lino Brocka [Doctoral dissertation, Hong Kong Baptist University]. HKBU Scholars. https://scholars.hkbu.edu.hk/en/studentTheses/investigating-kracauerian-cinematic-realism-through-film-practice/ 

Gutierrez, J. (2026). AI cinematic realism. Amazon KDP.  https://a.co/d/01yoRCT6 

Husserl, E. (1970). The crisis of European sciences and transcendental phenomenology (D. Carr, Trans.). Northwestern University Press. (Original work published 1936) 

Kracauer, S. (1997). Theory of film: The redemption of physical reality (M. B. Hansen, Ed.). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1960) 

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1968). The visible and the invisible (A. Lingis, Trans.). Northwestern University Press. (Original work published 1962)