Hooroo Jackson
- Writer
- Director
- Editor
Hooroo Jackson is an American film director, screenwriter, editor, and film theorist. He is the architect behind The New Machine Cinema, and the director of the first AI feature film, AI animated feature film, AI stop-motion feature, simultaneous dual-format release, and the first choose-your-own-protagonist feature film, all made entirely solo with budgets in the three figures. He published the two earliest volumes of AI film theory defining its foundational terms: "One Person, One Film," "Speed of the Mind," "The Living, Breathing Cinema," "The Adaptive Cinema Engine," and "The Story Brain".
Jackson first garnered attention in 2014 when the Wall Street Journal featured his investments in Bitcoin at $10 per coin; he leveraged these profits to finance his directorial debut 'Aimy in a Cage' (2015), starring Allisyn Snyder, Crispin Glover, Paz de la Huerta, and Academy Award nominee Terry Moore. The surreal family drama earned him the Director's Prize at the 2015 Portland Film Festival and found a devoted cult following.
Next, he became a leading figure in AI cinema, unifying several divergent technologies in ways never before realized, planting the flag for the AI cinema revolution.
On July 21, 2023, he released 'Window Seat', the first fully AI feature film in the history of cinema. At 61 minutes and a budget of just $100, the solo-made film proved fledgling generative AI tools could already deliver a complete motion-picture experience. Window Seat represented several firsts in cinema including: the first completed and widely released AI feature film, the first feature film with complete AI video and performances, and the first AI feature film made entirely by one person. Lastly, it was the first narrative feature film in history utilizing lines of machine writing.
On July 3, 2024, he premiered 'DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict', the first fully AI animated feature film and the first AI anime feature film ever made. With 100% of its sound, music, video, and performances generated with AI tools, the $405 production also became the first AI feature film to land a major streaming license, winning two awards for Best Animated Film and one for Best Director on the festival circuit. Alongside the film he released its AI-generated soundtrack, and the book 'Artificial Imagination: The Making of DreadClub,' archiving his complete dialogues with LLMs across the six month production.
On December 25th, 2024, Jackson published 'The New Machine Cinema: Foundational Essays in AI Film Theory,' the most comprehensive theoretical framework for AI cinema to date. The New Machine Cinema presented several concepts such as 'One Person, One Film', a framework which posited that a film should be created entirely by its director with no other credits. 'Speed of the Mind', explored a new cinema flowing at the pace of human thought. But it was his essay 'The Living, Breathing Cinema' that laid the theoretical groundwork for Jackson's next film, as he set out to prove that a movie could exist in multiple forms simultaneously-a living, breathing entity shaped by audience choice.
On April 22nd, 2025, he premiered 'A Very Long Carriage Ride,' the first film in the history of cinema released in two different artistic styles simultaneously, becoming the first AI stop motion animated feature film, and the first AI classic style animated feature film at once. The $2,000 production crossed literary influences such as Jane Austen, Alexander Dumas, and Charles Dickens alongside Jackson's trademark whimsy and theatricality. The film was accompanied with a supplemental essay, 'One Film, Two Ways: Introducing A Very Long Carriage Ride', positing: "A film is no longer a film, a film is a series of possibilities."
On June 30th, 2025, Jackson published 'Post-Scarcity Cinema: Essays on AI Film Theory'; his new essays 'Machine Pleasures,' brought forward a new philosophy in screen performance where eccentric machine readings created delightful tones beyond human performance. 'Post-Aesthetic Cinema' explored a future of non-visual cinema, and 'The Pinnacle Contact', introduced concepts in multi-outcome cinema such as the story brain and the adaptive cinema engine. "The future of cinema will not be regarded from what happens on screen, instead, its story brain will be analyzed like a car engine."
In October 2025, Jackson will premiere 'My Boyfriend is a Superhero!?'-taglined "Choose your protagonist." The superhero romcom is the first feature film in history to let audiences choose the film's protagonist, offering two different Abigails: one white, one black. It is also the first fully AI 3D-animated feature, with all sound, music, visuals, animation, and performances machine-generated, also notable for employing AI agents to help in the editing of the film.
Jackson first garnered attention in 2014 when the Wall Street Journal featured his investments in Bitcoin at $10 per coin; he leveraged these profits to finance his directorial debut 'Aimy in a Cage' (2015), starring Allisyn Snyder, Crispin Glover, Paz de la Huerta, and Academy Award nominee Terry Moore. The surreal family drama earned him the Director's Prize at the 2015 Portland Film Festival and found a devoted cult following.
Next, he became a leading figure in AI cinema, unifying several divergent technologies in ways never before realized, planting the flag for the AI cinema revolution.
On July 21, 2023, he released 'Window Seat', the first fully AI feature film in the history of cinema. At 61 minutes and a budget of just $100, the solo-made film proved fledgling generative AI tools could already deliver a complete motion-picture experience. Window Seat represented several firsts in cinema including: the first completed and widely released AI feature film, the first feature film with complete AI video and performances, and the first AI feature film made entirely by one person. Lastly, it was the first narrative feature film in history utilizing lines of machine writing.
On July 3, 2024, he premiered 'DreadClub: Vampire's Verdict', the first fully AI animated feature film and the first AI anime feature film ever made. With 100% of its sound, music, video, and performances generated with AI tools, the $405 production also became the first AI feature film to land a major streaming license, winning two awards for Best Animated Film and one for Best Director on the festival circuit. Alongside the film he released its AI-generated soundtrack, and the book 'Artificial Imagination: The Making of DreadClub,' archiving his complete dialogues with LLMs across the six month production.
On December 25th, 2024, Jackson published 'The New Machine Cinema: Foundational Essays in AI Film Theory,' the most comprehensive theoretical framework for AI cinema to date. The New Machine Cinema presented several concepts such as 'One Person, One Film', a framework which posited that a film should be created entirely by its director with no other credits. 'Speed of the Mind', explored a new cinema flowing at the pace of human thought. But it was his essay 'The Living, Breathing Cinema' that laid the theoretical groundwork for Jackson's next film, as he set out to prove that a movie could exist in multiple forms simultaneously-a living, breathing entity shaped by audience choice.
On April 22nd, 2025, he premiered 'A Very Long Carriage Ride,' the first film in the history of cinema released in two different artistic styles simultaneously, becoming the first AI stop motion animated feature film, and the first AI classic style animated feature film at once. The $2,000 production crossed literary influences such as Jane Austen, Alexander Dumas, and Charles Dickens alongside Jackson's trademark whimsy and theatricality. The film was accompanied with a supplemental essay, 'One Film, Two Ways: Introducing A Very Long Carriage Ride', positing: "A film is no longer a film, a film is a series of possibilities."
On June 30th, 2025, Jackson published 'Post-Scarcity Cinema: Essays on AI Film Theory'; his new essays 'Machine Pleasures,' brought forward a new philosophy in screen performance where eccentric machine readings created delightful tones beyond human performance. 'Post-Aesthetic Cinema' explored a future of non-visual cinema, and 'The Pinnacle Contact', introduced concepts in multi-outcome cinema such as the story brain and the adaptive cinema engine. "The future of cinema will not be regarded from what happens on screen, instead, its story brain will be analyzed like a car engine."
In October 2025, Jackson will premiere 'My Boyfriend is a Superhero!?'-taglined "Choose your protagonist." The superhero romcom is the first feature film in history to let audiences choose the film's protagonist, offering two different Abigails: one white, one black. It is also the first fully AI 3D-animated feature, with all sound, music, visuals, animation, and performances machine-generated, also notable for employing AI agents to help in the editing of the film.
