Directing
Chris Moukarbel
Born
1978-01-01 (48)
Place of birth
New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Known for
Directing
Credits
20 titles
Chris Moukarbel (born in 1978; New Haven) is a documentary film director, writer, producer and contemporary artist. His first feature documentary Me at the Zoo (Me @ The Zoo) premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival in 2012 and was acquired by HBO Documentaries. The film charts the rise of YouTube and tells the story of an early viral Internet celebrity, Chris Crocker of “Leave Britney Alone!” fame. Moukarbel was approached by Sheila Nevins to direct the Emmy nominated documentary Banksy Does New York for HBO. He is also the creator and director of the HBO series Sex On // which takes a look at sex and relationships in the Information age. It was conceived as a reboot of the clas…
Known for
7.4Follow pop provocateur Lady Gaga as she releases a new album, preps for her Super Bowl halftime show, and confronts physical and emotional struggles.
Gaga: Five Foot Two
2017
5.8Spotlighting the art of drag, and centered on the New York staple Wigstock, this documentary showcases the personalities and performances that inform the ways we understand queerness, art and identity today.
Wig
2019
6.8On October 1, 2013, the elusive street artist Banksy launched a month-long residency in New York, an art show he called Better Out Than In. As one new work of art was presented each day in a secret location, a group of fans, called “Banksy Hunters,” took to the streets and blew up social media.
Banksy Does New York
2014
NRA playful and illuminating self-portrait of writer Jeremy O. Harris as he workshops and mines Slave Play, the provocative play that thrust him into the spotlight, with a new cast of young actors from New York’s William Esper Studio.
Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play.
2024
5.0A dramatic tale of espionage, propaganda, and romance, following the infamous Berlin rapper Denis Cuspert aka Deso Dogg and his journey from artist to MMA fighter to ISIS recruiter. When the FBI assigns a translator to monitor Cuspert, her quest to get close to him takes over her life.
The Honey Trap: A True Story of Love, Lies and the FBI
2024
6.4Cypher is a fictional pseudo-music documentary about the artist Tierra Whack and the conspiracy theory that secret societies run the music world.
Cypher
2023
Film credits
2010s · 2 titles
NRIn Comma Boat, we're stuck in a mock-authoritarian fantasy--a power trip. The film centers around a director-character played by Trecartin who oscillates between feelings of omnipotence and self-doubt. As if a post-human, post-gendered reincarnation of the Fellini character in 8 ½, the director gloats and frets about professional and ethical transgressions. "I know I lied to get ahead," he admits at one point. "I've made up so many different alphabets just to get ahead in my field." The director is fancier now, but the fear nags that he might be "repeating" himself "like a dumb soldier ova and ova and ova and ova." The meta-connection to the artist's own career, while obvious, is also a decoy. All art, at some level, is about the artist. Here, reflexivity is the surface level, providing a decodable veneer that encases something more unsettling and complex. Single-channel and 3-channel versions.
Comma Boat
2013
NRIn Item Falls, we are peaking. We start out at a casting call, but before long we're firmly in the grip of hallucination, shedding our anxieties and evidently regressing to the animation era, a time when stunt chickens were mere chicklets. Friendly archetypes float in and out of what seems like our bedroom. The red-headed Jenny has returned, but this time she's squeaky and trusting. Unlike in Center Jenny, here our perspective is literally centered. The camera seems to be the in middle of the room, which is good, because we're too blissed out to move. Luckily, our hallucinations look directly at us.
Item Falls
2013
Behind the camera
7.4Follow pop provocateur Lady Gaga as she releases a new album, preps for her Super Bowl halftime show, and confronts physical and emotional struggles.
Gaga: Five Foot Two
2017
7.4Follow pop provocateur Lady Gaga as she releases a new album, preps for her Super Bowl halftime show, and confronts physical and emotional struggles.
Gaga: Five Foot Two
2017
5.8Spotlighting the art of drag, and centered on the New York staple Wigstock, this documentary showcases the personalities and performances that inform the ways we understand queerness, art and identity today.
Wig
2019
5.8Spotlighting the art of drag, and centered on the New York staple Wigstock, this documentary showcases the personalities and performances that inform the ways we understand queerness, art and identity today.
Wig
2019
6.8On October 1, 2013, the elusive street artist Banksy launched a month-long residency in New York, an art show he called Better Out Than In. As one new work of art was presented each day in a secret location, a group of fans, called “Banksy Hunters,” took to the streets and blew up social media.
Banksy Does New York
2014
6.8On October 1, 2013, the elusive street artist Banksy launched a month-long residency in New York, an art show he called Better Out Than In. As one new work of art was presented each day in a secret location, a group of fans, called “Banksy Hunters,” took to the streets and blew up social media.
Banksy Does New York
2014
NRA playful and illuminating self-portrait of writer Jeremy O. Harris as he workshops and mines Slave Play, the provocative play that thrust him into the spotlight, with a new cast of young actors from New York’s William Esper Studio.
Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play.
2024
5.0A dramatic tale of espionage, propaganda, and romance, following the infamous Berlin rapper Denis Cuspert aka Deso Dogg and his journey from artist to MMA fighter to ISIS recruiter. When the FBI assigns a translator to monitor Cuspert, her quest to get close to him takes over her life.
The Honey Trap: A True Story of Love, Lies and the FBI
2024
5.0A dramatic tale of espionage, propaganda, and romance, following the infamous Berlin rapper Denis Cuspert aka Deso Dogg and his journey from artist to MMA fighter to ISIS recruiter. When the FBI assigns a translator to monitor Cuspert, her quest to get close to him takes over her life.
The Honey Trap: A True Story of Love, Lies and the FBI
2024
6.4Cypher is a fictional pseudo-music documentary about the artist Tierra Whack and the conspiracy theory that secret societies run the music world.
Cypher
2023
6.4Cypher is a fictional pseudo-music documentary about the artist Tierra Whack and the conspiracy theory that secret societies run the music world.
Cypher
2023
6.4Cypher is a fictional pseudo-music documentary about the artist Tierra Whack and the conspiracy theory that secret societies run the music world.
Cypher
2023
4.2An intimate look at a controversial young video blogger, regarded by millions as the Internet's first rebel folk hero.
Me @ the Zoo
2012
4.2An intimate look at a controversial young video blogger, regarded by millions as the Internet's first rebel folk hero.
Me @ the Zoo
2012
6.0Thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson's life changes overnight when he becomes the first person in human history to beat Tetris. This coming-of-age story explores grief, the power of community and the rise of an unexpected internet legend.
Blue Scuti: Tetris Crasher
2025
6.0Thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson's life changes overnight when he becomes the first person in human history to beat Tetris. This coming-of-age story explores grief, the power of community and the rise of an unexpected internet legend.
Blue Scuti: Tetris Crasher
2025
3.0HBO documentary about sex in the world of modern technology. How much do forbidden pleasures cost on the Internet? And how to make good money on other people's desires?
Sex On //
2015