Surprise new Elizabeth Holmes documentary follows Theranos founder's final weeks before prison

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of blood-testing startup Theranos, is the subject of a new documentary from comedian Nathan Fielder and filmmaker Lance Oppenheim.

You Can See Everything was unveiled Sunday as a surprise screening at the Telluride Film Festival after being made largely in secret over three years. Filming began 34 days before Holmes was due to report to federal prison. The documentary is set to be released in theaters in October.

Holmes founded Theranos at 19 and became a celebrated Silicon Valley entrepreneur by claiming the company had developed technology capable of performing a wide range of medical tests using a small amount of blood. But the technology did not live up to her claims, and in 2022, Holmes was convicted of defrauding Theranos investors. She is serving a federal prison sentence.

You Can See Everything is co-directed by Fielder, best known for the Comedy Central series Nathan for You , and Oppenheim, who directed the Robert Pattinson film Primetime .

Holmes was looking for someone to document her life as she prepared to report to prison. Fielder, Oppenheim and a small film crew were ultimately given extensive access to Holmes, her partner, Billy Evans, and their two young children, according to the Los Angeles Times .

The documentary's synopsis reads: "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."

The teaser trailer shows Holmes and Fielder staring at each other as he questions whether she is being truthful with him. When he asks if she is being "real," Holmes replies that she is "always being real."

Fielder is known for blurring the lines between reality and performance, and early reviews suggest You Can See Everything takes a similarly unconventional approach. Variety called it "just about the furthest thing from a 'pure' documentary you've seen," while the Los Angeles Times said it was "far stranger than a conventional documentary."

TheWrap argued the film "uncovers complex new layers to the Holmes saga," while Deadline 's critic said it was "unlike any I have ever seen in terms of pure access." Vanity Fair said it was "full of unexpected twists and turns and shocking reveals," with Fielder and Oppenheim having "incredible access" to Holmes and Evans.

Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 and served as the company's CEO. Her pitch helped turn her into one of Silicon Valley's most prominent young entrepreneurs. Forbes estimated her net worth at $4.5 billion in 2014, then revised it to $0 in 2016 as Theranos unraveled.

Theranos raised more than $900 million from investors, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch, software billionaire Larry Ellison and the Walton family behind Walmart. The company planned to set up "mini-labs" in Walgreens and Safeway stores, where its small Edison device would provide faster, less invasive blood testing.

Evidence presented at her trial showed that the company's blood-testing technology produced misleading results and that Theranos used conventional laboratory machines for testing that its own technology could not reliably perform.

In 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Holmes, Theranos and Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, Holmes's former romantic partner, who served as the company's president and chief operating officer, with raising more than $700 million from investors through what the agency described as a years-long fraud involving false or exaggerated statements about the company's technology, business and financial performance.

Holmes settled the SEC's civil charges without admitting or denying the allegations. She agreed to pay a $500,000 penalty, relinquish voting control of Theranos, return millions of shares and accept a 10-year ban on serving as an officer or director of a public company.

Amanda Seyfried portrayed Holmes in the 2022 Hulu limited series The Dropout , for which she won an Emmy for her performance.

A federal jury convicted Holmes in 2022 of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud against Theranos investors and three counts of wire fraud against individual investors. The wire transfers involved in those counts totaled more than $140 million, according to the Justice Department .

Holmes was not convicted of defrauding Theranos patients. The jury acquitted her of a patient-related fraud conspiracy charge and three charges involving individual patients. Jurors could not reach verdicts on three additional investor-related charges.

In November 2022, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila sentenced Holmes to 135 months — 11 years and three months — in federal prison, followed by three years of supervision.

Balwani was separately convicted on all 12 criminal charges against him and sentenced to nearly 13 years in federal prison.

Holmes began serving her sentence in May 2023 at a federal prison in Texas. She is currently projected for release in March 2032, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records.

A federal appeals court rejected her attempt to overturn her conviction in February 2025 and upheld an order requiring Holmes and Balwani to pay $452 million in restitution.

Holmes told People in 2025 that Evans and her children visit her in prison twice a week. "It kills me to put my family through pain the way I do," she said. "But when I look back on my life, and these angels that have come into it, I can get through anything. It makes me want to fight for all of it."