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Welcome to ‘Ren Faire’: Lance Oppenheim’s HBO Docuseries Follows a Festival Trapped in a Real-Life Game of Thrones
"Ren Faire," a new HBO docuseries, follows employees battling to lead the Texas Renaissance Festival. Director Lance Oppenheim previews the showdown.
“Ren Faire” may have the knights and knaves of “Thrones,” but the power dynamics running through it more closely resemble “Succession.” Produced by Josh and Benny Safdie’s Elara Pictures, the three-episode doc centers on George Coulam, the iconoclastic octogenarian founder of the “nation’s largest Renaissance theme park,” which welcomes about half a million guests annually to carouse among costumed entertainers while munching turkey legs and cheering on jousters. The feud reaches one crisis point in the series when a loyal entertainment director goes into a panic after Coulam aligns himself with another business partner — a burst of unnerving close-ups and spinning colors provide an ornate portrait of the employee’s ego death. The production realities of that can be hard for people to stomach,” Oppenheim says, citing the influence of Jonathan Glazer’s 2013 sci-fi feature “Under the Skin,” which saw Scarlett Johansson play an alien among non-professional actors filmed with hidden cameras.
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