Fact Meets Fiction: A Conversation between Alex Gibney and Beau Willimon

Master storytellers Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, and Sinatra: All or Nothing at All) and Beau Willimon (House of Cards) have reinvigorated their respective forms of expression, documentary and drama, exciting audiences and critics alike. Gibney and Willimon will exchange views on how they achieve truth on film, whether in fictional or fact-based worlds. They will discuss how certain storytelling techniques are common to both documentary and drama to sustain a believable narrative. Our esteemed guests will also consider how power and ambition are best portrayed in different genres, comparing the Willimon’s Underwoods with Gibney’s documentation of Enron (The Smartest Guys in the Room) and Eliot Spitzer (Client 9) among many others.

This program is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.