LOS ANGELES — The private life of disgraced Silicon Valley startup founder Elizabeth Holmes is laid bare in a startling new documentary filmed in the 34 days before she went to prison.

You Can See Everything, the film from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, opens in US theaters on Friday 16 October.

Holmes, through Theranos, falsely touted technology capable of performing medical tests using only a few drops of blood, drawing investors, among them Henry Kissinger, Carlos Slim and Rupert Murdoch, into her orbit before the scheme unravelled.

It ended in a trial, with Holmes sentenced in 2022 to more than 11 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy.

At its peak, Theranos was valued at $9 billion (roughly R165 billion). The scandal fuelled a media circus, chronicled in a book, multiple podcasts and the biographical mini-series The Dropout, which starred Amanda Seyfried.

Holmes case sparked global debate about startup accountability and the challenges facing women in tech. Holmes shied from the public eye, making the documentary’s surprise debut at the Telluride Film Festival all the more astonishing. No local release date has been announced.

Really sad and hard

The film follows Holmes life at home with partner Billy Evans and their two children, a hybrid of documentary and reality television that drew laughter, gasps and applause at a screening hosted by A24 at the David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles.

Fielder, a Canadian comedian, writer and producer known locally for The Rehearsal, said Holmes initiated conversations with A24 about documenting her daily life. After a few meetings, she invited the filmmakers into her California home.

During a discussion afterwards, the directors described their experience as “really sad and hard at times.”

“I still am not sure to this day what I experienced,” Fielder said. “It was just a small group for so long. Maybe if it’s out there, everyone could help me understand what I went through.”

Uncomfortable

Oppenheim said neither Holmes nor Evans expressed familiarity with his work when they opened their doors.

Fielder, the comic behind The Rehearsal and Nathan For You, said there was “never a great explanation” as to why he should lead the project, “or why you would want to spend your last month of freedom in a decade with this guy.”

In early images released by A24, Holmes is shown maintaining intense, unnerving eye contact with Fielder, scenes that made even him “uncomfortable,” he said.

“At a certain point, I was like, ‘I’m not going to stop.’ If she’s looking at me, I’m just going to keep looking at her,” Fielder said.

Evans, who has not seen the film, tried to exert control over production, though the filmmakers were never thrown out. Holmes has also not seen the finished product, Fielder and Oppenheim said. She remains in prison.

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