A new documentary from A24 provides an intimate look at former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes during the final weeks before she began serving a federal prison sentence. Titled You Can See Everything, the project was directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. It made a surprise world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, drawing immediate attention for its unconventional perspective on one of Silicon Valley’s most high-profile white-collar criminals.
The film follows Holmes at her San Diego home starting 34 days before she reported to federal prison. According to A24’s official synopsis, what begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon evolves into a mind-bending three-year production journey. Filmmakers captured Holmes in domestic environments-swimming in the ocean, reading to her young children, and interacting with her husband, Billy Evans-while addressing the ongoing fallout of the Theranos scandal.
Holmes was convicted in January 2022 on one count of conspiracy and three counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors established that she misled investors and the public regarding the capabilities of Theranos proprietary blood-testing technology, which was falsely claimed to run hundreds of medical diagnostics using only a single drop of blood. Federal regulators and investigative reports from The Wall Street Journal exposed systemic flaws in the technology years prior to the company’s 2018 collapse.
Inside the Making of ‘You Can See Everything’
The documentary’s origins stem from an unexpected outreach. According to the film’s account, Holmes and Evans proactively approached A24 believing that an unusually personal, unvarnished film could help communicate her perspective and establish her narrative of innocence. Fielder, widely recognized for his work in deadpan docu-comedy and reality-bending projects like Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, teamed up with documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim to capture the footage.
The newly released trailer highlights a tense, deadpan exchange between Holmes and Fielder. In the footage, Holmes insists to the filmmaker that she is being entirely genuine:
“I’m not that person, I can promise you that,” Holmes says in the clip. “I don’t have anything to deceive you on. Of course, I’m not deceiving you. I’m engaging with you as a human being. Why would I deceive you? There’s no reason for me to do that.”
Fielder responds with characteristic deadpan delivery: “OK. Alright. OK, good chat. … You’re being real right now?” Holmes replies, “I’m always being real.”
Cast, Crew, and Post-Screening Revelations
During a post-screening Q&A at the Telluride Film Festival moderated by actress Emma Stone, Fielder admitted that the production process left him profoundly unsettled. He noted that the crew frequently gathered to analyze their interactions with Holmes, yet none of them could reach a consensus on how to interpret her demeanor.
“I’m really struggling to this day to understand what I experienced,” Fielder told the audience. “I’m excited for this movie to come out and for people to help me with what I experienced. Truly, to this day, I don’t quite know what I went through.”
The documentary also explores unexpected subject matter regarding Holmes’ future ambitions. According to reporting from The New York Times, the film reveals that Holmes and Evans discussed concrete plans to launch a new healthcare company patterned after Theranos, with Holmes asserting that a similar business model could still save millions of lives.
Current Status of Elizabeth Holmes
Holmes, 42, shares two young children with Evans: a son named William, born in 2019, and a daughter named Invicta, born in February 2023 just months before her incarceration. She originally received a sentence of more than 11 years in federal prison, which a federal judge later reduced. She is currently serving her time at Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas, with a scheduled release date in late 2031.
You Can See Everything is scheduled for a theatrical release in October, bringing back into the public eye a narrative previously examined in the 2019 HBO documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley and the 2022 Hulu biographical miniseries The Dropout.
