Hooroo Jackson is an American filmmaker, novelist, essayist, and a leading figure in the AI filmmaking revolution. Born on December 3, 1985, in Baltimore, MD, he first gained attention as a wunderkind editor, winning a national C-SPAN competition in 2003. In 2014, he was featured in the Wall Street Journal as an early proponent of Bitcoin, having invested at an average of ten dollars, which he used to finance his first film.
"Aimy in a Cage" premiered in 2015, starring Allisyn Snyder, Crispin Glover, Paz de la Huerta, and Academy Award Nominee Terry Moore. The film's color and style drew frequent comparisons to Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, and David Lynch.
In 2023, Jackson broke ground in the field of AI filmmaking, unifying several divergent technologies in ways never realized, creating a string of firsts in the history of cinema.
On July 21, 2023, he released Window Seat, the first fully AI-generated feature film ever made. At a budget of just $100, the historic film marked several firsts in category, including the first completed and widely released AI feature film, the first AI feature film made entirely by one person, and the first film with machine writing. However, a streak of hostility, abuse, and platform bannings followed Jackson that would plague him across his career.
On July 3rd, 2024, he made history again premiering DreadClub: Vampire’s Verdict (2024), the first fully AI-animated feature film ever made. The film was also the first AI anime feature film, and the first movie with a 100 % complete AI workflow across the board, even utilizing experiments in AI editing; at a budget of $400, DreadClub garnered the best reviews in his career, achieving 75 % on RottenTomatoes, six interviews and four end-of-year wrap-ups. The vampire love story was also notable for being the first AI film to land a major streaming license.
The controversy around DreadClub, however, was considerable, leading to around-the-clock abuse, platform bans, and institutional attacks; all of which were documented in Hooroo Jackson's book: Artificial Imagination: The Making of "DreadClub".
On December 25th, 2024, Jackson published the first formal framework on AI film theory. The book of seven seminal essays was called The New Machine Cinema: Foundational Essays in AI Film Theory. In "One Man, One Film", Jackson likens machine filmmaking as the final and ultimate expression of Bazin's auteur theory. His essay "Speed of Mind" essay examines how AI enables a new form of fast cinema that approaches the pace of human thought. "The Living Breathing Cinema", explores the new malleable cinema and the concept of the infinite film, concluding with "The Automated Film" exploring the furthest implications of AI cinema.