Francesco Carrozzini's AI Documentary 'Be Brave' Premieres at Venice, Recreating Renzo Rosso Without a Single Filmed Frame

Director Francesco Carrozzini debuts "Be Brave," an 85-minute fully scripted documentary about Diesel founder Renzo Rosso, at the Venice Film Festival — making it among the first AI-generated features to screen at a top-tier festival. Rather than filming his subject, Carrozzini used AI to recreate Rosso at different stages of his life entirely from scratch, driven partly by the absence of quality archival footage. Venice chief Alberto Barbera framed the film's inclusion as "an invitation for everyone to think about how AI as a tool can open up new creative possibilities for filmmakers."

Carrozzini spent a year and a half on the project, during which time the underlying AI technology shifted so dramatically that early work had to be redone — a challenge he describes as both difficult and exhilarating. His guiding philosophy throughout was that "the human has to come first," insisting AI must serve emotion and storytelling rather than define them. The film is produced by Lorenzo Mieli, Mario Gianani, and Gabriele Immirzi at Rome-based Our Films, a Mediawan company.