In this interview with Documentary, Raoul Peck describes a collaboration built through successive experiments between Paris and Belgium. He asked Vincent Lannoo to explore AI tools and, over several months, received a wealth of visual material. The challenge was to find what belonged within the film's documentary approach.
A key direction emerged from Vincent's way of combining AI-generated music and lyrics. The sequence that grew from those experiments was edited together with real footage of Donald Trump. Peck was drawn to the unsettling overlap between the two: at times, reality appears more fabricated than fiction.
“Vincent was hired specifically to do this.”
Documentary / IDA
Peck also explains why he kept the use of AI in check. Continuity between characters and shots remained difficult to control, and he considered transparency about how images were made essential. In the film, these experiments serve a broader reflection on the manipulation of language and facts.
The original article
The Synthesis: Raoul Peck on Using AI to Critique Authoritarianism in ‘Orwell: 2+2=5’
Documentary / IDA · Katerina Cizek and shirin anlen · October 7, 2025