Photographer and director Francesco Carrozzini is returning to the Venice Film Festival with Be Brave, a documentary about the life of Renzo Rosso, founder of the fashion house Diesel. The film is being presented as the first documentary made entirely with artificial intelligence, a claim that positions it at the centre of an ongoing debate about the role of new technologies in cinema.
Carrozzini, who has built a career between fashion photography and filmmaking, explores the figure of Rosso not only as an entrepreneur but as a cultural force who helped define the aesthetic of an era. Diesel, under Rosso's leadership, became one of the most recognisable denim brands in the world, known for provocative advertising campaigns and a rebellious brand identity that resonated far beyond the fashion industry.
The choice to make the documentary with AI tools is significant for a subject like Rosso, whose career has been marked by innovation and a willingness to challenge conventions. The technology allows for a visual language that moves beyond traditional archival footage and talking-head interviews, offering instead a reconstructed and stylised portrait that matches the energy of its subject. The result, according to those involved, is a film that feels less like a conventional biography and more like an immersive experience.
The Venice Film Festival has increasingly become a platform for works that test the boundaries of the medium, and the inclusion of Be Brave in the programme reflects that tendency. Previous editions have featured films shot entirely on smartphones, experiments with virtual reality and productions that push the limits of digital post-production. The arrival of a fully AI-generated documentary, however, marks a new step in the conversation about authorship and creativity in cinema.
Questions about what it means for a film to be made by artificial intelligence are central to the project. Carrozzini has spoken about the process as a collaboration between human vision and machine learning, where the director provides the narrative structure and emotional intent while the AI generates the imagery. This hybrid approach raises practical questions about the future of documentary filmmaking, particularly in terms of production costs, access to archival material and the ability to represent historical events that were never captured on camera.
For Rosso, the documentary serves as a reflection on a life that began in a small Italian village and grew into a global business empire. Born in 1955 in the Veneto region, he founded Diesel in 1978, building it into a brand that became synonymous with a certain kind of nonconformist style. His story is one of the classic Italian entrepreneurial successes, but the AI treatment gives it a contemporary twist that aligns with the forward-looking identity of the brand itself.
The film arrives at a moment when the use of artificial intelligence in creative industries is being hotly debated, from writers' strikes over automation to questions about copyright and the ownership of AI-generated works. By presenting Be Brave at one of the world's most prestigious film festivals, Carrozzini and Rosso are making a statement about the legitimacy of AI as a creative tool rather than a threat to human artistry.
Whether the film will convince sceptics or be seen as a curiosity remains to be seen, but its presence in Venice ensures that the conversation about AI and cinema will continue well beyond the festival. For audiences, it offers a chance to see what happens when one of fashion's most distinctive figures is reimagined through the lens of a technology that is itself redefining the boundaries of visual storytelling.