The first footage from Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney’s approximately four-hour documentary “Musk” has been released. Screened at the Venice Film Festival in September, the production examines Elon Musk’s years at Tesla and SpaceX, his acquisition of Twitter/X, his political influence and his private life. Musk, who did not give an interview, described the film as a “smear film” and accused Gibney of having “zero integrity.” The documentary will be released in theaters in New York and Los Angeles in the United States on October 9; it will air on HBO at the beginning of 2027.
Why it matters
The documentary raises the question of how Musk is portrayed not only as a company executive but also as a figure with influence in technology, media and politics. This scope makes the production more than a biographical portrait, turning it into a work that discusses the relationship between business decisions and public influence. Musk’s refusal to give an interview and his characterization of the production as a smear film require viewers to further assess the sources used by the director and how the opposing view is represented. The time between the theatrical release and the television broadcast also means that the documentary will be discussed first among festival and cinema audiences, and then by a broader audience. However, the extent to which the film establishes connections between these different spheres cannot be determined from the first footage alone.
Background
Musk is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 7 stories mentioning the name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated September 17, 2026.