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A new HBO documentary, produced by the Safdie Brothers, follows the 86-year-old overlord of the Texas Renaissance Festival, and the vicious competition to replace him.

A new HBO documentary series follows King George, the eighty-six-year-old overlord of the Texas Renaissance Festival, and the vicious competition to replace him.

But, even as a young filmmaker, Oppenheim already has a strong set of visual and narrative signatures which he deploys to amplify his subject matter, rendering his stories much more like dramatic films than conventional documentaries. There’s a flair for the dramatic at the Texas Renaissance Festival, where people parade around in elaborate costumes, participating in events like a Barbarian Battle Cry contest, and chomping on giant turkey legs from the concession stands. But Oppenheim’s version of “Ren Faire” is both explicitly and implicitly about the pursuit of artistry in the face of commercial interests, and the misfit personas caught up in between: the Renaissance, after all, was a time when artists were held in the highest esteem.

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