Disclosure first since I'm about to mention a tool I built: I'm a solo founder. With that out of the way, here's the honest landscape.
Manual Premiere mosaic + Mocha is what most documentary editors end up doing for this. The result usually doesn't pass broadcast review since the blur looks soft on a 4K cut, and frame-by-frame correction when the subject turns more than 30 degrees is the slow expensive part.
A few options worth knowing:
Boris FX BCC+ Witness Protection. Paid Premiere/AE plugin, tracks better than the built-in mocha mask. Closest thing to "click face, walk away" if you're shipping broadcast.
Pseudoface and Neoface. Creator-anonymity tools, mostly OnlyFans-targeted. They do AI face replacement, but the architecture is image-first and video support is uneven for docs.
Brighter AI and SecureRedact. Enterprise tier (GDPR, FOIA, automotive fleet anonymization). They won't sell to indie post-supervisors.
blurcast.com. This is mine. Two face modes per detected face: blur, or AI replacement with a synthetic identity. Plus tattoo and mark removal, background blur, and metadata stripping in one pipeline. $1/min PAYG, no subscription, free trial, no card. DM me a short clip if you want me to process it directly and email it back.
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