A new documentary traces the rise, fall and cratering of VICE
- Text by Ella Glossop
VICE is broke — Streaming on MUBI, it’s presented by chef and filmmaker Eddie Huang, who previously hosted travel and food show Huang’s World for the millennial media giant.
The rise and fall of Vice Media is getting the documentary it deserves. VICE IS BROKE, a new film from chef, writer, and filmmaker Eddie Huang, will première globally on MUBI on 29 August 2025, with the trailer released this week.
Tracing VICE’s transformation from a scrappy punk zine in ’90s Montréal to a $5.7 billion media juggernaut – and its crash into bankruptcy in June 2023 – VICE IS BROKE will explore the rise and fall of a media brand that redefined journalism for a generation.
The film, which debuted at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and earned a Grand Jury Prize nomination at DOC NYC, offers an insider take on VICE’s golden years and consequent unravelling. Huang, who hosted the cult travel and food show Huang’s World for VICE, brings a personal insight into how a company built on anti-establishment ideals ended up consumed by the very same forces it once mocked.
Read next: The future is written
“I was part of a cultural movement at VICE that was sold out from under us,” Huang said in a statement. “VICE IS BROKE paints a portrait depicting the true costs of selling out – from cultural devastation to corporate failures, but perhaps most importantly, the personal betrayals.”
The documentary is backed by QC Entertainment – the producers behind Get Out and BlacKkKlansman – and will explore the rapidly evolving landscape of digital media over the past decade.
In 2023, Vice Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, ahead of a sale to a consortium that included Soros Fund Management and Fortress Investment Group. In February 2024, it was announced that the website would no longer publish new content, along with layoffs in its editorial team. Later that year, VICE relaunched its print magazine and restarted publishing on its channels.
VICE IS BROKE will stream exclusively on MUBI across North America, the UK, Ireland, Latin America, Germany, Austria, Italy, Benelux, France, Turkey and India. Visit MUBI’s website for more information.
Ella Glossop is Huck’s social lead. Follow her on Bluesky.
Buy your copy of Huck 81 here.
Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on Instagram and sign up to our newsletter for more from the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture.
Support stories like this by becoming a member of Club Huck.
You might like
The Pinball Punk of Montreal
An analogue revolution — When musician Adam Kiesler tried to bring pinball back from the dead, kickstarting a scene in Montreal, he uncovered the game's seedy past – and the archaic laws that banned it.
Written by: Josh Gabert-Doyon
The suave style and subtle codes of gay San Francisco in the ’70s
Seminal Works — Hal Fischer’s new photobook explores the photographer’s archive, in which he documented the street fashion and culture of the city post-Gay Liberation, and pre-AIDS pandemic.
Written by: Miss Rosen
The stripped, DIY experimentalism of SHOOT zine
Zine Scene — Conceived by photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya in the ’00s, the publication’s photos injected vulnerability into gay portraiture, and provided a window into the characters of the Brooklyn arts scene. A new photobook collates work made across its seven issues.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Confronting America’s history of violence against student protest
Through A Mirror, Darkly — In May 1970, two separate massacres at American college campuses saw deaths at the hands of the state. Naeem Mohaiemen’s new three-channel film memorialises the brutality.
Written by: Miss Rosen
New film champions women surfers tackling the huge waves of Nazaré
Undercurrents — Filmmaker Maddie Meddings’ latest documentary focuses on big-wave superstar Laura Crane as she helps prepare 16-year-old Imari Hearn to take up big wave surfing.
Written by: Sydney Lobe
Joe Bloom’s View From a Bridge
More stories, more human — The artist and creator of the vertical video generation’s most loved storytelling platform explains the process behind creating the show, and the importance of bucking trends.
Written by: Isaac Muk
