Elizabeth Holmes’ 34-day pre-prison documentary You Can See Everything
premieres at NYFF, with Nathan Fielder capturing her defiant claims of innocence and a surreal, evolving narrative.
The documentary You Can See Everything, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, premieres at the New York Film Festival on September 30, offering a chilling look at Elizabeth Holmes’ final days before her 2023 prison sentence for Theranos fraud. The film, which had a secret premiere at Telluride, follows Holmes and her husband, William Evans, as they invite Fielder’s crew into their home 34 days before her incarceration, framing the project as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon.
A Surreal Chronicle of Defiance
The documentary’s premise is as unconventional as its subject. Holmes, who founded Theranos—a company valued at $9 billion—invited Fielder’s team to document her life just before her 11-year federal prison sentence for fraud. The film, which took four years to complete, begins as a fly-on-the-wall account of her final freedom but quickly spirals into a meta-narrative about truth, perception, and power. “Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss,” reads the film’s logline.
Fielder’s approach is unorthodox. He and his crew lived with Holmes and Evans for 12 hours a day, capturing their routines, arguments, and moments of vulnerability. The film’s early scenes emphasize Holmes’ insistence on her innocence, with Holmes declaring, 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.
These statements, paired with Fielder’s relentless questioning, form the film’s emotional core.
Holmes’ Legacy and the Film’s Context
Theranos’ collapse—after years of false claims about its blood-testing technology—made Holmes a symbol of Silicon Valley’s excesses. Founded in 2003, the company promised to revolutionize healthcare with a device called Edison, which Holmes claimed could perform hundreds of tests from a single drop of blood. The Wall Street Journal’s investigations exposed the fraud, leading to her 2022 conviction. Despite this, Holmes has consistently denied wrongdoing, stating, No soy esa persona, te lo prometo. No tengo nada sobre lo que engañarles, por supuesto que no les engaño. Me relaciono con ustedes como un ser humano. ¿Por qué les engañaría? No tengo ninguna razón para hacerlo. Siempre soy sincera.
The documentary arrives amid renewed public fascination with Holmes’ story. A24, the film’s distributor, has positioned it as a “unique” exploration of power and deception, while Variety’s Owen Gleiberman called it a spirit of true inquiry
driven by Fielder’s acidly quizzical personality.
The film’s release coincides with the rise and fall of Theranos, a period that reshaped narratives around tech entrepreneurship and accountability.
Reception and Unanswered Questions
Critics have praised the film’s audacity but questioned its implications. The Hollywood Reporter’s Angie Han noted that the documentary begins as a fascinatingly intimate portrait of a deluded or disingenuous scammer reveals as something even wilder, more ambitious, and less predictable.
However, the film’s focus on Holmes’ perspective has sparked debates about whether it humanizes a figure who defrauded investors and patients. Control of her narrative has once again slipped outside her hands,
Han wrote, and in her absence, the void gets filled by other means.
Fielder’s decision to continue filming after Holmes’ imprisonment raises questions about the film’s intent. The director has stated that the project was created in secret over four years,
suggesting a deliberate, long-term vision. Yet the documentary’s reception remains polarizing. While some viewers see it as a bold exploration of truth, others argue it risks normalizing Holmes’ rhetoric. The film’s October 16 theatrical release will likely intensify these debates, particularly as it navigates the line between scrutiny and sympathy.
As the film’s premiere approaches, one lingering question remains: Does You Can See Everything offer a new lens on Holmes’ story, or does it merely repackage the same controversies? For now, the answer lies in the 174-minute journey Fielder has crafted—a journey that promises to challenge, confuse, and captivate in equal measure.