Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction next Monday, January 10: CLIENT 9: THE RISE AND FALL OF ELIOT SPITZER
Prolific documentarian Alex Gibney first screened his profile of the disgraced New York Governor as an untitled work-in-progress at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, making it one of the hottest tickets of the event. The completed film had its official world premiere at Toronto, and was brought to VOD and theatres by Magnolia in October and November, respectively.
Gibney, working with his collaborator from ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, author Peter Elkind, takes on the challenge of finding the story that stretches beyond the highly public call girl scandal which saw the powerful and feared politician resign from office in 2008. While the film provides insight into the bust of the Emperors Club escort agency, where Spitzer was identified as “Client #9,” securing critical interviews with club employees, the truly juicy material comes less from the salacious aspects of the scandal and more from the detailed history of Spitzer’s earlier political career as New York State Attorney General and the enemies he made along the way. Interviews with Spitzer himself and even with some of those adversaries provide a rich context in which to understand what might have significantly contributed to his fall from grace.
Director Alex Gibney will be in attendance at STF for a Q&A following the film.
what (not) to doc 