Entertainmentupdated 1h ago2 min read
IDFA Screens Elon Musk And Elizabeth Holmes Documentaries In Amsterdam Festival
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IDFA will screen Elon Musk documentary "Musk" by Alex Gibney at Amsterdam festival. IDFA will screen Elizabeth Holmes documentary at Amsterdam festival.
IDFA adds Musk, Holmes
The International Documentary Festival Amsterdam will screen documentaries on Elon Musk and Elizabeth Holmes, with the festival taking place in Amsterdam from November 12 to 22. Alex Gibney’s four-hour-long documentary on Musk, titled simply Musk, will be included in the lineup, and the IDFA synopsis says, "The resulting grotesque avatar may well offer a compelling reflection of Musk’s vision for the future." The IDFA will also include the Elizabeth Holmes documentary titled You Can See Everything, which the IDFA describes as a "cat-and-mouse" game between the filmmakers and Holmes and Evans.
“The IDFA will include screenings of documentaries on two rather controversial figures this year: Elon Musk and Elizabeth Holmes.”
The IDFA synopsis for You Can See Everything adds that "Fielder questions, charms, probes, and challenges, doing everything he can to get a handle on the situation." The festival’s program also includes other documentaries, including The Mayor: Halsema & Amsterdam, which follows Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema during a pivotal year.
Gibney on making Musk
Alex Gibney told the San Francisco Chronicle that "Musk" is a four-hour documentary minutely detailing his three-decade rise to become the world’s richest man at the expense of many.
Gibney said Musk never agreed to an interview, and he described how his team looked back through the archives of everything Musk said publicly and created a simulated Elon Musk that appears throughout the film.
Gibney explained to WIRED that his team leaned into Musk’s simulation idea by designing a simulated interview, saying, "Well, what were we gonna do? He’s the main character."
Gibney also said the simulated Elon Musk approach was thematically driven by Musk’s own statements, and he tied the method to the film’s exploration of AI and LLMs.
Gibney told WIRED that he designed the avatar so it would not drift into "slop AI territory" and said, "It would’ve been a mistake to go into slop AI territory".
Music, politics, and Palestine
Nicolás Jaar stopped by the Democracy Now! studio to perform and talk about his work, and he said his latest release includes Piedras 1 and Piedras 2, both of which came out in 2025. Jaar discussed his views on Palestine and ICE, and he said, "There’s more people locked up in California than at Coachella right now, and this country keeps on arming and funding, also with tech and Silicon Valley, the genocide of the Palestinian people". Jaar connected the broader political moment to musicians speaking out, and he said, "the news cycle has largely, in a way, forgotten that there is an ongoing genocide, to this day, in Palestine."
Jaar also addressed the silencing of artists, and he said, "it does make me wonder for how many years Palestinian artists were silenced." Jaar linked the discussion to the axing of Macklemore from Ed Sheeran’s national tour after Macklemore said "Free Palestine," and Jaar responded to the question of what those moments mean.