Director Gibney's political power exposé 'Musk' premieres in Venice
Documentarian Alex Gibney (Enron, Theranos) premieres his nearly four-hour film 'Musk' out of competition at the 83rd Venice Film Festival on September 8 — confronting Musk's ties to the Trump administration and his role in the midterms, with a Bleecker Street theatrical release in October and an HBO debut set for 2027.
Gibney has built his career probing powerful figures and institutions — Enron's accounting fraud, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, Scientology, and U.S. military abuse at Abu Ghraib and Bagram. He has said the scale of power at stake in this film surpasses any of his prior subjects.
The Venice and Toronto festival cut runs three hours and 45 minutes, while an expanded 232-minute version is being prepared for its 2027 HBO debut. Bleecker Street will give the film a U.S. theatrical release in October.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the documentary warns that Musk's closeness to the Trump administration and his America PAC's election spending could let him influence the outcome of this year's midterms — echoing September 5 reporting on America PAC's sharply rising weekly spend.
Musk's personal and political activities have no direct bearing on Tesla's financials, but controversies over his time and public image have previously moved the stock, making this a story shareholders may want to watch.
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