Alex Gibney: "Film is the human drama"

On February 26th, Academy Award winner Alex Gibney spoke at USF's 2009 Human Rights Film Festival on a large range of topics, from his film Taxi to the Dark Side to the art of the documentary to celebrity news' place in mainstream media to his experience winning an a 2008 Oscar for documentary feature. Being unfamiliar with his work, I was a little nervous about how much I would take away from this event, but I found myself completely absorbed in no time. He spent a large chunk of the interview commenting Taxi to the Dark Side, an up-close look at the US military's torture practices in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The topic was extremely fascinating, given the little amount of information we citizens are able to learn about it from the press. Alex explained his approach to speaking with soldiers unlike the “Gotcha!” tactics of 60 Minutes, a refreshing perspective to hear.



My favorite aspect of the interview was how humble and personable Alex seemed to be. He had no problem admitting how cocky he felt the first time he attended the Oscars (and lost) in 2006 and never at once came off like he thought documentaries are better than any other category of film. But along with humble, he was genuine, passionate, and poetic when he spoke and answered questions, and it was great to see someone who has been successful in Hollywood and still keeps themselves from getting jaded. As a media studies major, it was very interesting to hear him comment on things like mainstream media, celebrity news, blogs, and paper journalism (and comment he did, answering the completely absorbed audience's questions for two hours). Alex Gibney is definitely someone who's brain I could pick for days.



For more information about Taxi to the Dark Side, visit the film's site here. For more on Alex himself, check out his IMDB page.