The documentary Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment explores “what happens when a powerful man begins to view the whole world as his playground.” On Monday evening, the 23rd edition of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, or CPH:DOX, screened the documentary, followed by a Q&A with director Andreas Pichler (The Milk System), producer Christian Beetz and former Tesla executive Esben Pederson, who is featured in the documentary.
Beetz was asked if the doc would be seen in the U.S., but signaled no deal was in place so far, acknowledging hurdles for a deal. “It’s very difficult,” he said. “I’ve been producing films for 25 years now, and most of our films are seen also in the U.S. and at big festivals, or on TV and so on. This film seems to be kind of impossible to get to the U.S.”
He’s not giving up, though, emphasizing: “We are working on it quite hard, but we have a very, very difficult environment in the U.S. now. Everybody’s really, really afraid, because [in Musk,] we have the richest man on Planet Earth.” Musk has also shown to be litigious when it comes to taking on people “who are against his vision,” he added.
His comments came on Monday evening after tech bros and AI were topics of debate at the CPH:DOX Summit.
Beetz also discussed making Elon Musk Unveiled a reality. “There are still partners, like public broadcasters or Sky, and also very brave TV [networks] and brave commission editors to make these films,” he shared. ”But they are really, really difficult to make. We have a bunch of lawyers behind us who cut out so many things from the interviews.”
Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment, which premiered in November at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), starts in 2014, when billionaire Musk presented his plans for self-driving cars to much applause. “What no one knows is that Tesla’s autopilot is far from fully developed and that Tesla’s customers are unwittingly becoming test subjects in a life-threatening experiment, where data from their cars is used to develop the technology in real time,” reads a synopsis for the film. Things culminate in a fatal accident in Florida, where the bereaved hold Tesla accountable via a lawsuit.
The doc showcases voices from victims and relatives, whistleblowers, investigative journalists and former senior Tesla employees to explore grand visions, financial interests and safety.
Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment was produced by Beetz and features cinematography by Jakob Stark and Tom Bergmann. The editors are Johannes Hiroshi Nakajima, Beatrice Segolini and Nicolas Nørgaard Staffolani. Mediawan Rights is handling sales.
