Alex Gibney
Gibney at the 2011Tribeca Film FestivalVanity Fair party
Born	Philip Alexander Gibney (1953-10-23)October 23, 1953 (age 72) New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	Yale University UCLA Film School Eton school
Occupation(s)	Film director, producer
Years active	1980–present
Relatives	Frank Gibney (father)

Philip Alexander Gibney (/ˈɡɪbni/; born October 23, 1953) is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010,Esquire magazine described Gibney as "becoming the most important documentarian of our time."^[1]

Gibney's works as director includeThe Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019),Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (winner of three Emmys in 2015),We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (2013),Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (winner of three 2013 primetime Emmy awards),Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (nominated in 2005 forAcademy Award for Best Documentary Feature);Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (short-listed in 2011 for theAcademy Award for Best Documentary Feature),Casino Jack and the United States of Money, andTaxi to the Dark Side (2007) (winner of the 2007Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature), focusing on ataxi driver inAfghanistan who was tortured and killed atBagram Air Force Base in 2002.^[2][3] In 2019, he released his documentaryCitizen K, about Russian PresidentVladimir Putin and the Russian billionaire exileMikhail Khodorkovsky.

Gibney was born in New York City, the son of Harriet (Harvey) and journalistFrank Gibney.^[4][5] His stepfather wasWilliam Sloane Coffin. After attendingPomfret School, Gibney earned hisbachelor's degree fromYale University and later attended theUCLA Film School.

Gibney developed an anti-authoritarian view from the journalism career of his father: "They say to succeed you're supposed to suck up and kick down. Well, he was the classic guy who sucked down and kicked up, which is never a good career path! He was atTime, then fired. AtNewsweek, fired. AtLife, fired." His stepfather was equally an influence on him. "There was something about my father, my mother, and then my stepfather, I think they all ruddered against authority in their own peculiar ways. And that probably rubbed off on me, too."^[6]

He served as executive producer of the documentaryNo End in Sight (2007). His filmGonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2008) is a documentary based onHunter S. Thompson's life and his "Gonzo" style of journalism. Under executive producerMartin Scorsese, Gibney was series producer for thePBS television seriesThe Blues (2003) (producing individual episodes directed byWim Wenders andCharles Burnett) and writer-producer ofThe Pacific Century (1992) (which won the News & Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Historical Program). Several films he directed and/or produced have been screened at theCannes,Sundance,Toronto andTribeca Film Festivals.

In an interview withRobert K. Elder forThe Film That Changed My Life, Gibney credits much influence on his filming style toThe Exterminating Angel:

[The Exterminating Angel is] dark, but it's also wickedly funny and mysterious in ways that can't be reduced to a simple, analytical explanation. I always thought that's what's great about movies sometimes—the best movies have to be experienced; they can't just be written about.^[7]

In an interview with David Poland for MIFF, Gibney disagrees with theview from nowhere, the idea thatjournalists can be objective:

"Objectivity is dead. There's no such thing as objectivity. When you're making a film, a film can't be objective.^[8]

Gibney frequently employs a narrative strategy akin to that of Ken Burns in which the filmmaker relies on testimony from those involved in the events recounted together with voice-over narration.^[9]

Gibney'sTaxi to the Dark Side premiered at the 2007Tribeca Film Festival where it won Best Documentary. The film probes the killing of a taxi driver namedDilawar atBagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.^[10]

Gibney is president of Jigsaw Productions, which produces independent films, documentaries and television series. On June 16, 2020,Imagine Entertainment, a film, television and documentary production company run byBrian Grazer andRon Howard, invested in and acquired an ownership stake in the company.^[11] Gibney has been honored by theYale Film Studies program for his contributions to film culture. In 2010,Utne Reader listed him as one of "25 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World."^[12]

His 2013 filmWe Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, is a comprehensive look atWikiLeaks,Julian Assange, andChelsea Manning. The Wikileaks organization itself has objected to the way Gibney portrayed it, and has posted a line-by-line rebuttal to the entire film. Gibney posted a rebuttal.^[13]

In 2015, Gibney received the inaugural Hitchens Prize, awarded in honor of the late writer Christopher Hitchens.^[14] Gibney had previously collaborated with Hitchens on a documentaryfilm adaption of Hitchens's bookThe Trial of Henry Kissinger.

Gibney's most recent projects include work onThe Armstrong Lie (aboutLance Armstrong),Catching Hell (a contribution toESPN's '30 for 30' series which looks at"The Inning" in Game 6 of the2003 National League Championship Series),Going Clear (a documentary about Scientology),Dirty Money (doc-series that explores corporate greed and corruption),The Looming Tower (fiction series based on the book by Lawrence Wright of which he directed the pilot), andThe Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, which premiered at Sundance 2019.

In 2023, Gibney showed the first part of two-part documentary at theBerlin film festival calledBoom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker, concerning the life of troubled German tennis starBoris Becker.^[15] In March 2023 he announced that he was “several months” into a documentary film calledMusk, about entrepreneurElon Musk.^[16][17]

In December 2024, it was reported that Gibney andAnonymous Content were working on a documentary onLuigi Mangione, the alleged shooter involved in thekilling ofUnitedHealthCareCEOBrian Thompson.^[18][19]

Gibney writes forThe Atlantic, and has written forHuffington Post and other publications.^[20]

On June 19, 2008, Gibney's company filed forarbitration, arguing thatTHINKFilm failed to properly distribute and promote his filmTaxi to the Dark Side.^[21][22] He sued for over a million dollars in damages and stated that the film has grossed only $280,000.

Gibney has been a resident ofSummit, New Jersey,^[23] and, as of 2025, lives inNew Harbor,Maine.^[24]

• Alex Gibney atIMDb
• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 1953 births
• Living people
• American documentary film directors
• American documentary film producers
• Critics of Scientology
• Directors of Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners
• Film producers from New Jersey
• Grammy Award winners
• People from Bristol, Maine
• People from Summit, New Jersey
• Pomfret School alumni
• Primetime Emmy Award winners
• Producers of Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners
• UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television alumni
• Writers Guild of America Award winners
• Yale University alumni

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