Renée de Sousa | Rebelles, Resistance & Rewriting the Future: Using AI and Storytelling to Fight for Gender Equality

Well-behaved women rarely make history.And many of the women who changed history were never documented at all.This episode of Tune Up Your Warrior features Renée de Sousa, co-founder of Toronto-based production company Space Pirates and creator of the French-language animated series Rebelles — a bold, fast-paced portrait of women changed the course of history.Funded by the CMF and broadcast on TFO, Rebelles tells the stories of courageous Canadian women and their "FU moments" who challenged power, resisted assimilation, and reshaped our world — even when photos, records, or recognition barely existed. In some cases, there were only a handful of images. In others, none at all.Rather than letting history disappear, Renée and her team made a deliberate choice: use emerging AI tools not to erase artists, but to restore visibility to women whose stories were nearly lost. Through painstaking experimentation, patience, and artistic intent, Rebelles uses AI as a bridge — filling gaps left by history while honoring truth, context, and creative integrity.This conversation is also deeply personal for me. Tune Up Your Warrior was created because I was once told to “tone down” my voice after naming inequities that made people uncomfortable. But history doesn’t move forward through comfort. It moves when stories are told — especially the ones we tried to silence.As this episode airs in alignment with International Women’s Day, it’s a reminder that when we stop talking about the past, we start taking progress for granted. And what we take for granted can disappear.This episode is about courage, storytelling, and why the women who challenged power still matter — now more than ever.Watch the Rebelles series here.