Having spent the last few years in a testing phase, the AI assembly line is finally allowing machines to create new movies and alter classic ones. But as TIFF showed, many directors are pushing back.
“Because I know the rooster.”
Those were the words of a Baghdad-based director named Hasan Hadi when asked how he was able to corral not just a host of non-actor children for his new movie but a particular kind of junglefowl.
Hadi – his The President’s Cake will come out this fall from Sony Pictures Classics and was just chosen as the official Iraqi Oscar submission – made the comment to a pair of reporters at a dinner at the Toronto International Film Festival. While among the more colorful – and barnyardy – of the remarks uttered at the important early-September gathering, it was far from the only one emphasizing the uniquely human qualities of filmmaking.
