Nixon, Kissinger called ‘poster boys of genocide’ in new AI-driven documentary on 1971

Filmmaker Ramesh Sharma's latest documentary, Chronicles of the Forgotten Genocide (2025), has reignited debate on the United States' role in the atrocities of 1971, portraying Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger as central figures enabling the bloodshed in Bangladesh.

According to a report by The Print, Sharma relied on artificial intelligence to recreate erased archival material from the Liberation War after much of it vanished following the 1975 assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The film depicts the genocide, the exodus of millions of refugees into India, the Liberation War, and Mujib's killing in a military coup.

"A lot of archival footage from the Bangladesh Liberation War was erased after Mujibur Rahman's death. We had to depend on AI for some of the scenes," Sharma said after a screening at the CD Deshmukh Auditorium in New Delhi's India International Centre on 28 August.

Shot partly in the US and Bangladesh, the project took nearly two years of research and production. The largely black-and-white documentary combines AI-generated recreations with survivors' testimonies, interviews, and limited present-day sequences in colour.

The filmmaker does not shy away from the brutality. Viewers were confronted with harrowing recreations of massacres alongside survivor accounts, leaving the audience audibly shaken.

He directly blames the American leadership for the violence. 

"These two are war criminals. If they had not been there, there would have been no genocide," Sharma told The Print, calling Nixon and Kissinger the "poster boys of genocide".

The documentary illustrates how, despite cables from US diplomats in Dhaka detailing atrocities, Nixon and Kissinger continued to support Pakistan, a stance Sharma says cemented their complicity in the killings.