(Fri 30th, Sat 31st Jan, Sun 1st Feb / 8pm / £4/£3)
(Alex Gibney / 120 mins / 2008 / UK / Cert 15)

Director Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Taxi to the Dark Side) presents an unflinching documentary of the life and times of cult anti hero Hunter S Thompson in 60s and 70s USA and his suicide in 2005. HST is known as a journalist for Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone with an appetite for reckless living, women and Wild Turkey. This film searches for the real HST beyond the myth.

Gibney says of HST:
"He ended up wasting his rather considerable talents, instead of refining them. He became a bloviator – someone who would spout gaudy opinions and mindlessly prattle on. As time went on, he saw the world as a reflection of himself. He didn't look out as much as he looked in the mirror. And he committed suicide in a way that was not heroic but rather sad and narcissistic."

Using unused-before archived tapes and footage of Thompson, the film
incorporates recreations and impressionistic re-stagings but more importantly lets Thompson's own work and own voice speak for itself.