THE GREAT DICTATOR

The concept for The Great Dictator emerged from wanting to explore AI-generated films in a more personal and participatory form. Viewers step into historical moments and deliver speeches that shaped the world, combining performance, archival material, and AI to create a short film in which participants see themselves inside history.

Titled after Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film "The Great Dictator," this immersive experience intends to explore the power of rhetoric and memory. The installation features three large screens cycling archival footage fronted by a podium where the audience consents to sharing their likeness and voice. They are asked to choose among three pivotal speeches from defining moments in history, and they perform a segment of the chosen speech. The installation then produces a short film in which their cloned voice continues the speech while their likeness is seamlessly inserted into the original footage. The project is powered by Runway.

The Great Dictator premiered at SXSW 2026 in Austin, Texas.

Credits
* Creation & Direction: Gabo Arora, Prashast Thapan
* Production & Editing: Yuval Shapira
* Sound Design: Antfood

Pariah Interactive Team
* Technical Direction: Prashast Thapan
* Engineers: Nishant Mohanchandra, YiXi “Luna” Wu
* Production & QA: Dipika Titus, Faith Zeng, Malvika Mital
* Physical Installation: Faith Zeng, Alden Lobo, Prashast Thapan

Exhibitions and Events
* SXSW Austin, Texas (2026)

Selected Press
* Fast Company: “Deepfakes are warping reality. This AI project turns them into a history lesson”
* CNET: “AI as a personal transformational lens”