Posts Tagged 'Alex Gibney'

Jed’s Sundance Updates #4: GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF

Published January 29, 2015 Sundance Film Festival Closed
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Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright’s expose of the highly controlled world of Scientology, Alex Gibney’s new documentary GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF is an extraordinary chronicle.

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The film features interviews with eight former members of the Church of Scientology, some of whom are pictured above.  This photo was taken at the Q & A following the screening.

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Above is Lawrence Wright who wrote the book this documentary is based on, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief.

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Pictured above is Oscar-winning director and MFF alum Alex Gibney taking questions after the screening of his film. Gibney is an MFF alum for multiple films including MAGIC TRIP, ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON, and CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY.  He also guest-presented Serbian film director Dušan Makavejev’s WR: MYSTERIES OF THE ORGANISM (1971) within the 2008 Maryland Film Festival.

Stay tuned for more updates from Sundance 2015 on the MFF blog!

Sundance Update #7: MFF Alum Alex Gibney’s WE STEAL SECRETS: THE STORY OF WIKILEAKS

Published January 25, 2013 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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Julian Assange of WikiLeaks. Film still from WE STEAL SECRETS: THE STORY OF WIKILEAKS. 2012, 127 minutes, color, U.S.A., Documentary.

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks. Film still from WE STEAL SECRETS: THE STORY OF WIKILEAKS. 2012, 127 minutes, color, U.S.A., Documentary.

Oscar-winning producer/director/writer Alex Gibney, who directed the Academy Award-winning TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (2007), presented a new documentary WE STEAL SECRETS: THE STORY OF WIKILEAKS, a wonderful film that discusses the way democratic societies deal with privacy, secrecy, and the right to information by examining WikiLeaks and its notorious founder, Julian Assange.

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Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood (center) with others after the screening of WE STEAL SECRETS.

Gibney is an MFF alum for multiple films including MAGIC TRIP, ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON, and CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY.  He also guest-presented Serbian film director Dušan Makavejev’s WR: MYSTERIES OF THE ORGANISM (1971) at the 2008 Maryland Film Festival.

Standing to Alex‘s immediate left is longtime collaborator Alison Ellwood, (co-director of MAGIC TRIP, who also appeared with Gibney at MFF 2011) who is at Sundance this year with her new documentary chronicling the Eagles, HISTORY OF THE EAGLES PART ONE.

– Jed Dietz, MFF Director

Documentary Filmmaker Profile: ALEX GIBNEY

Published January 6, 2011 Uncategorized Closed
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Oscar, Emmy, Peabody, and Grammy award winning producer/director/writer Alex Gibney was recently described by Esquire Magazine as “becoming the most important documentarian of our time.” Gibney came to prominence with his highly acclaimed 2005 feature ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM (Oscar Nominee Best Documentary, Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, Writers Guild of America Award, official selection Maryland Film Festival 2005). In the years since, Gibney has directed the 2007 Oscar-winner for Best Documentary TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (which also won a Peabody Award in 2007 and an Emmy in 2009); GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON (Sundance 2008; MFF 2008), CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY (Sundance 2010; Maryland Film Festival 2010), and most recently CLIENT 9: THE RISE AND FALL OF ELIOT SPITZER. Before turning to feature documentaries, Gibney had great success in television as writer/director /producer of several documentary series. Gibney won an Emmy (1993) and the DuPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism (1994) for directing, writing and producing the 10-part PBS series THE PACIFIC CENTURY. He also served as Series Producer for Executive Producer Martin Scorsese’s THE BLUES, and was awarded a Grammy for his work compiling the 5-disc soundtrack CD to the same series.

Click the link below to see a clip of Gibney in conversation with Charlie Rose about his 2005 film ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/903

Another excellent interview with Gibney on PBS’s Need To Know: http://video.pbs.org/video/1588682061/

**Call 410.752.8083 to order tickets to see Alex Gibney, Rachel Grady and Stanley Nelson interviewed by Meredith Vieira on January 21st at MFF PRODUCES!**

TICKETS:   $250 (All-Access)/$90 (Conversation and Reception Only)

ANNOUNCING: MFF PRODUCES A Conversation with Meredith Vieira and Award Winning Documentary Filmmakers!!

Published December 20, 2010 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Meredith Vieira, co-host of NBC’s Today Show, contributing anchor for Dateline NBC, founding moderator and former co-host of The View, and correspondent for Turning Point, West 57th, and Sixty Minutes, will moderate a discussion with award-winning documentary filmmakers on the subject: “Are Documentary Filmmakers the New Journalists?” at this year’s Maryland Film Festival Fundraiser!

Friday, January 21, 2010

MICA, Brown Center

Documentary filmmakers, all alums of the Maryland Film Festival include: Alex Gibney (Oscar winner for TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, and widely praised for ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, CASINO JACK, and SPITZER), Rachel Grady (BOYS OF BARAKA, Oscar-nominated JESUS CAMP, and 12TH & DELAWARE), and award-winning and MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient Stanley Nelson (JONESTOWN, FREEDOM RIDERS).

**CALL 410.752.8083 to order tickets**

All Access: including the pre-reception, reserved seats conversation, and a special dinner with Viera and the filmmakers – $250

Conversation and Pre-reception: wine, beer and hors d’ouevres) – $90

Table Hosts: (10 All Access tickets, plus 10 student tickets for the Conversation)  – $5,000

Schedule of the evening:

6pm: Doors open, wine and beer reception

7:15pm: Auction and Conversation with Meridith Vieira, Alex Gibney, Rachel Grady and Stanley Nelson

9pm:All Access ticket-holder dinner with Vieira and the filmmakers in the MICA Main Building

Alex Gibney’s CASINO JACK and the United States of Money

Published January 28, 2010 1 Closed
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Academy-Award winning director, Alex Gibney (TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE), has been working for years on a doc about uber lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the impact of  $$$$ on our (political) life. CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY is like Alex’s amazing film about Enron; terrifically entertaining and insightful.  Scary but insightful. He has no peer in making “mush” clear. In this photo Gibney is wearing a Rehoboth lifeguard t-shirt  because Mike Scanlon, a former Tom DeLay staffer who became one of Abramoffs acolytes, was a Rehoboth lifeguard,  and is still not in jail.  -Jed

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