Published : 11 Sep 2026, 01:59 AM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:49 AM
Elon Musk has launched a furious public attack on documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, calling him a "bitter old man" with "zero integrity" after Gibney's four-hour film about the tech billionaire premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Musk took to X, the social media platform he acquired for $44 billion in 2022, to dismiss the documentary as a tedious "hit piece" -- insulting both its content and its length in a string of posts.
"It's a hit piece that misses, and makes the fatal sin of being boring for four hours," he wrote.
Gibney, whose previous work includes documentaries on the Enron scandal, WikiLeaks and Russian President Vladimir Putin, said at a Venice press conference that he found a "sense of fear" among people he reached out to while making the film, reports The Guardian.
He described Musk as "extremely dangerous" and suggested the billionaire's turbulent childhood in South Africa may have shaped his current behaviour.
"He had a childhood that was very difficult and traumatic," Gibney said. "To some extent he's now playing out that trauma on the rest of us, if I were to psychoanalyse the situation."
Musk, however, was dismissive.
He accused Gibney of assembling "a hit list of people who either have an axe to grind or don't even know me", and called the film a coordinated "psychological operation" against him.
He also appeared to endorse a conspiracy-tinged image circulating on X that depicted a chain of puppets -- labelled the Democratic Party, billionaire George Soros, Gibney, and finally Hollywood -- suggesting the film was politically orchestrated.
"Accurate," Musk wrote in response to the post.
The documentary has also stirred controversy over specific claims made by individuals featured in it.
Musk flatly denied an allegation from former MAGA influencer Ashley St Clair -- who was previously in a relationship with him -- that his team had offered her $40 million to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
"She was never offered that and has a history of making false claims," he wrote.
Podcaster Katie Miller, wife of senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller and a former communications director for Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), also weighed in, arguing the film could not be considered authoritative given that people close to Musk had not participated.
Musk amplified her post.
The fallout from the Venice premiere comes as Musk's political interventions continue to generate controversy internationally.
He has repeatedly entered the debate over immigration in the United Kingdom, and this week celebrated the strong electoral showing by Germany's far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt.
