Reuters
source: reuters
Filmmaker Alex Gibney made his marathon documentary “Musk,” about the vast influence of billionaire Elon Musk, to prompt discussions about reclaiming power from “tech oligarchs,” he said in an interview on Sunday.
The Oscar-winning documentarian is at the Toronto International Film Festival for the North American premiere of the documentary. Gibney started the film before U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term and expanded its scope after Musk became a close aide of Trump. The film was initially two hours long but was extended to nearly four hours after Musk endorsed Trump, the filmmaker said.
“I hope it’s the beginning of the discussion for all of us, not only citizens in the United States, but citizens of the world, to begin to take back power from these tech oligarchs who seem to be desirous of running the world for themselves,” Gibney said.
The documentary charts Musk’s path from the dotcom era, his purchase of a $1 million McLaren, his rise as the CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab, SpaceX (SPCX.O), opens new tab and Twitter that made him the world’s richest person. The documentary also has interviews from his father Errol Musk, Martin Eberhard, the ex-CEO of Tesla and Ashley St. Clair, Musk’s former partner and the mother of one of his many children.
“This is really a film about how absolute power corrupts. Or perhaps how power reveals one’s character. There’s a question as to whether or not Musk was always going to go in this direction or whether the power corrupted him,” Gibney said.
Musk has criticized Gibney on his social media platform X, calling “Musk” a “false film” and threatening to sue the filmmaker. Gibney said the team has rigorously fact-checked and had a rigorous legal review.
