In "War on Crypto, mockumentary on moon landing by Berliner, Menelik in Berlin Conference" which I posted on 8th February 2026, I shared the sentiments I expressed in a Tweet, where I was thinking of a mockumentary of the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference, whose anniversary was coming up on February 26th. I would have loved to work on and post either a short mockumentary or a trailer of the mockumentary to coincide with the anniversary but time was the constraint...until two months later on April 16th.
On April 15th, Peter Diamandis noted in "The Organizational Singularity Is Here: When One Person Plus AI Beats 100 People Without It" that: "AI is compressing that timeline into months...Knowledge workers are discovering their expertise can be replicated by a $20/month subscription…I’m watching entrepreneurs run businesses solo that would have required full teams just two years ago...The human provides strategic direction, creative vision, and relationship management..." Diamandis begun his post with two quotes and he posited that both statements are correct:
Marc Andreessen says, “AI job loss narratives are all fake,”
Dario Amodei says, “AI will replace the majority of white-collar worker imminently.”
In some corners, Dario's statement is taken to mean that a dystopian world is imminent.
On March 2nd, 2026, Christina Comben, in an article on cointelegraph.com titled: "Energym AI dystopia goes viral as crypto projects tout user-owned AI agents" wrote: "The video clip, created by Belgian studio AiCandy, uses AI-aged versions of Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Jeff Bezos to hawk a fictional gym where unemployed workers pedal bikes and row machines to power the very AI systems that replaced them, trading lost income for a new sense of “purpose.”" (Belgian studio? My February 2026 article "Love and Leopold" may be of interest).
The same day that Diamandis posted his article, Utopai Studios posted: "You can now create full 3-minute cinematic videos in 4K with consistent characters, worlds, and storylines, all in one place." Of course I had to check it out. I signed up and in less than an hour, I had my 45-second mockumentary trailer of the Berlin Conference!
My original prompt was: "A 10 second movie trailer of a mockumentary about the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, highlighting how ridiculous it was. The protagonist is an African female dressed in Victorian goth attire that has African fabric elements. The tone is dark humour."
Below are some highlights from the output of the Utopai tool:
"Here is the draft for your 10-second dark comedy mockumentary trailer about the absurdity of the 1884 Berlin Conference. I've taken the liberty of setting it up like an episode of The Office but placed in the 19th century, keeping the pacing tight for that 10-second trailer feel."
Impressive, because there was no where in my prompt where I mentioned The Office. "The Office was filmed with a single-camera setup in cinéma vérité style to create the look of an actual documentary, with no studio audience or laugh track, allowing its "deadpan" and "absurd" humor to fully come across." (Wikipedia)
In the Script Review section, the Utopai tool refined my original prompt in this way: "Story: A dark comedy mockumentary trailer set during the 1884 Berlin Conference, told from the perspective of an unimpressed African gothic aristocrat observing European men squabbling over a map like toddlers."
The tool also provided an entire script of the mockumentary trailer! That was a pleasant surprise, especially since I am a professional screenwriter. I quickly looked over the provided script and while there were some things I wanted to change, I decided to leave the script as it was, to see what the outcome would be like. Some of the details that delighted me included the teacup. I felt that this was a nice and apt touch (recently, my haiku mentioning a teacup and alluding to the theme of this mockumentary was published in Leaf Journal.)
Below is the script:
INT. BERLIN CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY
A grand, opulent 19th-century hall. An oversized, slightly inaccurate map of Africa is spread across a massive mahogany table.
A dozen stuffy EUROPEAN DIPLOMATS in heavily medaled uniforms, ridiculous monocles, and extravagant mustaches are squabbling like toddlers. One is trying to measure the Congo with a comically large wooden ruler, while another violently stabs a flag into the Sahara.
Standing quietly in the corner, holding a delicate china teacup, is ZARA (30s). She is a striking African woman dressed in a magnificent Victorian goth gown—black lace and corsetry seamlessly integrated with vibrant, dark-hued Ankara fabric.
She looks completely out of place, yet entirely in control.
Zara turns her head and looks DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA, Jim Halpert style.
ZARA
(Deadpan, with a dry British accent)
So, a dozen men who think black pepper is a high-risk spice are currently dividing up my entire continent.
Behind her, two diplomats accidentally bump heads while lunging for the same piece of the map. One drops his monocle into a teacup.
Zara takes a slow, unbothered sip of her tea.
ZARA
I give it a week before the humidity makes them cry.
FADE TO BLACK.
In terms of the Afrogoth aesthetic, the tool got it right: "Victorian goth gown—black lace and corsetry seamlessly integrated with vibrant, dark-hued Ankara fabric."
The dialogue could definitely use some work. As I mentioned in my Tweet showcasing the mockumentary trailer: "I'm not responsible for the dialogue lol".
I will end with some interesting thoughts shared on 14th April 2026, by Salim Ismail, founder of OpenExO and author of Exponential Organizations:
"...the new Artemis image lands differently...it’s confronting. A fragile, shared home suspended in black silence. No borders. No silos. No org charts. Just one system...the problems we’re trying to solve...resilience, equity, etc. don’t respect the boundaries we’ve built..."
