The Catto Family - Bloodlines of Resistance

The Catto Family (Category: Documentary)

Inspiration This is a deeply personal project, inspired by my own family history and the desire to tell the story of my ancestors: Reverend William T. Catto and his son, the activist Octavius V. Catto.

Their legacy is a core part of who I am.

What it does

This 90-second film is a personal documentary that tells a multi-generational story of a Black family's fight for freedom, from the 19th century to today. It uses AI to visualize history and connect it to the present.

How we built it

I used AI to visualize the 19th-century scenes that no camera ever captured. I then combined these AI-generated visuals with family archives, historical documents, and a personal voice-over I recorded. The final film was edited and sound-mixed in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was creating a consistent "look" for the historical figures across multiple AI-generated shots. It required careful prompt engineering and shot selection to maintain visual continuity.

Accomplishments that we're proud of I'm incredibly proud of how seamlessly the AI visuals blend with the real historical archives. I'm also proud to have honored my family's legacy and completed a piece that is both a class project and a personal, professional film.

What we learned I learned that AI can be an incredibly powerful tool for documentary filmmaking. It allows us to bring history to life and tell important stories that would otherwise be impossible to visualize.

What's next for The Catto Family This is a merely a small drop of the bigger story. I will build this short film into a full feature documentary series. My career in documentary film editing allowed me to grasp the balance of ethics, recreation, archival and the immense utility AI tools can provide us in showcasing story and moments in the human experience we have not been able to physically document. The technique of blending AI with historical fact is something I will absolutely use in future documentary projects.

Built With

• elevenlabs
• kling
• krea
• minimax
• openart
• veo3