Maine documentary filmmaker adds Elon Musk to his long resume

Alex Gibney likes the fact that Maine has a reputation for being somewhat contrarian, where people aren’t afraid to question authority.

Over the course of more than 40 years as a director, Gibney has made documentary films that seek to explain and expose corruption, unchecked power or injustice. He won an Oscar for his 2007 film “Taxi to the Dark Side,” which examined the U.S. government’s use of torture in interrogating prisoners during the war in Afghanistan. His 2025 HBO series “The Dark Money Game” explored corruption within the sphere of campaign financing.

He’s currently working on a documentary about billionaire businessman Elon Musk, who became a senior advisor to President Donald Trump.

Gibney has been inspired by Maine since childhood, when his family had an island home in Muscongus Bay, near the Pemaquid Peninsula. He’s come to Maine regularly ever since, but in 2023, he began living full-time in New Harbor, a village in the Midcoast town of Bristol.

He says living in Maine the past few years has been “a life changer.” He had his home outfitted with editing equipment so he could work there. His kids and grandkids live in Maine, too.

“I love the spirit of the people here. I guess I’ll always be from away, but I feel at home here,” said Gibney, 72.

During the years when he came to Maine seasonally, Gibney often appeared at the Camden International Film Festival, which focuses on documentaries and is usually held in early fall. Since moving here full-time, he’s brought some of his films to local theaters.

His new film “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie” will be screened at the Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta on May 2 at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A with Gibney. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and details the recovery of the British Indian author after a stabbing attack in 2022. Rushdie’s 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” made him a hated figure among some militant Muslims.

Gibney also makes films that delve into fame and pop culture. In 2023 Gibney spoke at the Lincoln Theater about his film “Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker,” about the German tennis player. He’s also made films about music legends Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and James Brown.

Gibney says he appreciates the fact that Maine still has many historic, independent theaters and opera houses showing films, including the Lincoln, the Waldo in Waldoboro, the Strand in Rockland and the Colonial in Belfast.

“It’s really a thriving cinematic state,” Gibney said.

‘Questioning Convention Wisdom’

Gibney grew up in New York City, Cambridge, Massachusetts and New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Frank Gibney, was a journalist who worked for magazines like Time and Newsweek, wote several books on Japan and East Asia and later worked at Encylopedia Britannica. His stepfather was Willilam Sloane Coffin, Jr., a minister who was a leader in the peace and civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Gibney says that each of these men’s work demonstrated the importance of “questioning conventional wisdom” and authority. He said his mother also “did not suffer fools gladly” and that attitude likely rubbed off on him.

He studied first at Yale University in New Haven and then went to UCLA film school. He started his career as an editor but got into working as a producer, handling the business details of a project. He said his career path shifted to directing after working as a producer on the 2003 PBS series “The Blues,” which was executive produced by Martin Scorsese and focused on the history of American blues music.

Since then he’s directed — often while also producing — dozens of documentary film or TV projects, starting with “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” in 2005. Based on the book of the same name by Fortune magazine reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, it details the fraud and corruption that led to the collapse of the energy giant.

“The job of the producer is is to figure out a way to bring the resources to bear for the director to see their vision through. I tell a lot of people that if they want to be a director, sometimes the best way is to become a producer first,” said Gibney. “You learn how to use money creatively and effectively. The other benefit is, you can hire yourself as director.”

Some other films Gibney has directed include “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God” (20

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13. “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks” (2013); “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” (20
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15. and “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley” (20
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17. “Going Clear” and “Mea Maxima Culpa” both won Emmy awards. The latter focused on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

His 2024 film “Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos” took a motif from the show Chase is most famous for. Gibney interviews Chase about the groundbreaking HBO series in a psychiatrist’s office, the setting where Tony Soprano talks out his struggle to balance his family life with his duties running a crime family.

Gibney sometimes narrates his own films, bringing a personal touch to the subject. But not all his topics are heavy. Throughout his career he’s sprinkled in biographies or pop culture stories. He said he took a cue from his friend, the journalist and author David Halberstam, who would balance working on big political books with books about baseball or football.

Following that strategy, Gibney has made “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon” (2023), “Sinatra: All or Nothing at All” (2015) and “Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown” (2014).

Gibney hopes his film about Musk will be out later this year. He’s been working on it for several years, starting before Musk’s appointment by Trump as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency. He thinks it will be a film that “will very much represent this age we’re in.”

“He’s this very powerful polymath who has a vision for the future. And I’ve been sort of along for the ride as he’s become a more prominent political figure,” said Gibney.

Though he’s spent most of his career in documentary films, Gibney says his dream project is to make a feature film from a script that he co-wrote. He hopes it’ll get made soon, either later this year or next year, but until then he doesn’t want to say too much about it.

“It’s about how hard it is to be a hero,” Gibney said. “How no good deed goes unpunished.”