Many people were too frightened to speak publicly about Elon Musk, director Alex Gibney said on Tuesday, as he unveiled his marathon documentary about the billionaire entrepreneur at the Venice Film Festival.

The nearly four-hour movie charts Musk’s rise from the dotcom era to become one of the world’s most influential figures, questioning how an unelected tech titan came to wield such sway over politics and public debate.

“I talked to many, many, many, many people who, except for some of the brave people who are here, declined to speak.”

The Tesla and SpaceX chief has dismissed the film, writing on his social media platform X this month that Gibney was biased and was “obviously going to make the most convincingly terrible hit piece on me that he can possibly think of”.

HOOKING UP WITH TRUMP

Joined by journalist Zoë Schiffer and Ashley St. Clair, Musk’s former partner and the mother of one of his many children, Gibney said he began work on the project in 2023 and had originally planned a less ambitious movie.

“We intended to make a shorter film before Elon Musk became wrapped in the career of Donald Trump and the presidency of the United States,” Gibney said, adding that the first thing he did was to contact Musk, who declined to be interviewed.

Gibney, whose previous subjects have included the collapse of energy firm Enron and Scientology, said Musk’s ascent was “the story of the confidence man” whose empire was built on an ability to sell inflated visions and hyped-up promises.

Without necessarily presenting any new bombshells, the film links Musk’s takeover of Twitter, his government cost-cutting drive and his reliance on federal contracts to the creation of unprecedented power and wealth in the hands of just one man.

Read More: Director Gibney says fear shadowed making of Musk documentary