Daniel Wolfram
The world’s richest man went on a multi-day tirade on his social media platform against a new documentary.
The documentary about a disgraced former businesswoman-turned-conwoman is not the only documentary that turned heads this week in Venice.
A documentary about the world’s richest man also premiered.
The subject himself is not happy about the documentary, and he let the world know on his social media platform.
Bitter attack online
Elon Musk launched an aggressive campaign on his social media platform after Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney premiered Musk, a four-hour documentary about him at the Venice Film Festival. In a series of posts, Musk accused the filmmaker of having “zero integrity” and called him a “bitter old man who lost the plot long ago.”
The Tesla boss dismissed the movie as a “hit piece that misses” and called it “boring af.” He also claimed the film was a “psy op” and posted graphics linking Gibney to a grand political conspiracy.
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Musk even shared an edited image featuring a poop emoji on the director’s head. “It’s an improvement,” he wrote.
Settlement and election claims
Musk also denied claims made by conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair, who had a child with him in 2024. In the documentary, she claims that she was offered a $40 million settlement tied to a non-disclosure agreement. “She was never offered that and has a history of making false claims,” Musk wrote.
The dispute reaches well beyond social media. Musk threatened legal action against Jigsaw Productions over claims that he influenced the 2024 election to Donald Trump’s advantage.
In the doc, St. Clair said Musk told her before all the votes were counted that “he was going to unleash the ‘anomaly in the matrix.’”
Gibney responds
During a press conference at the festival, Gibney revealed he encountered a “tremendous sense of fear” while seeking people to interview for the project.
According to Deadline, Gibney added that Musk’s rise reminded him of previous corporate sagas he had directed, describing the tech leader’s journey as “really the story of an old wine in a new bottle.” He noted that the narrative felt oddly familiar after making films about Enron and Elizabeth Holmes and her fraudulent company Theranos.
The documentary premieres on October 16.
