Billy Corben and Jen Gatien’s “Men of War,” one of the first documentaries that Neon produced and funded, will be available to watch via PVOD starting Sept. 9.
The doc, which premiered at the 2024 Toronto Film International Festival, chronicles Operation Gideon, a 2020 sea invasion of Venezuela by a coalition of local dissidents and American mercenaries to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro. Former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau planned the failed mission that happened just weeks after the Trump administration placed a $15 million bounty on President Maduro.
Goudreau, a former Special Forces soldier who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, planned to land in Venezuela via speedboat with approximately 60 other men in an attempt to capture Maduro, an authoritarian president. At the time, Goudreau said that he and his team were acting to protect Venezuela’s democracy after Maduro’s 2018 re-election, which was boycotted by the opposition and condemned as undemocratic by the U.S.
In 2024, Goudreau was charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods from the U.S. and unlawful possession of a machine gun, among 14 counts. His trial is expected to begin soon.
Corben (“Cocaine Cowboys”) and Gatien (“Limelight”) began filming “Men of War” in 2021. In the 102-minute film, the directors trace the botched incursion and the few characters who lived to tell the tale: a journalist, Goudreau, a Miami-based dissident, an army general, and the brother of one of the captured American mercenaries. The doc also features exclusive prison recordings of retired Venezuelan General Cliver Alcalá Cordones and interviews with J.J. Rendón, strategist to Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
“When the filmmakers approached us with the wildly compelling story behind ‘Men of War,’ we couldn’t have imagined that story would still be playing out in 2025,” Neon said in a statement.
Variety film critic Murtada Elfadl described the film as “a morally complicated portrait of a mercenary who thinks he’s a righteous soldier: a man who obviously cannot grapple with the consequences of his actions.”
Prior to the doc’s TIFF debut, Neon’s EVP of nonfiction, Dan O’Meara, told Variety that “Men of War” appealed to the company for a number of reasons.
“Every part of [Goudreau’s] project felt ill-conceived and impossible,” said O’Meara. “They approached [Venezuela] by boat, and that boat broke down. There also were not that many guys involved. Everybody was wondering, ‘What were these guys thinking? How could they have thought that they were going to get away with this, and at whose behest?’ Jordan was made this laughing stock. As it turns out, he was working for and had been hired by very powerful people in the Venezuelan opposition party, and he was in touch with the White House. Mike Pence’s people were giving [Goudreau] the tacit wink-wink like, ‘If this all works out, you will have our support.’ Jordan was also in touch with Keith Schiller, Trump’s former bodyguard. So, he believed at the time that he was undertaking a project that had the blessing of the Trump administration.”
In May, Neon theatrically released “Men of War” and qualified it for Oscar consideration.
Since Neon’s 2017 inception, the company has become a major player in the doc landscape, distributing “Fire of Love,” “Moonage Daydream,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.”
“Men of War” was produced and financed by Neon, in association with Rakontur, Deerjen, and Hyperobject. The film was produced by Alfred Spellman, Jen Gatien, and Billy Corben. Tom Quinn, Dan O’Meara, Todd Schulman, and Adam McKay serve as executive producers.