Who Is Elizabeth Holmes? Know the Subject Of A24’s ‘You Can See Everything’ Documentary From Nathan Fielder
Credit: A24
Credit: A24
Hollywood has always been the hub of inspiration, either through its dream-like stories or through the real-life stories of actors and actresses who call it home. From inspiring proposals to success stories, and sometimes even crimes and escape stories, Hollywood has enough in its bag for real life to borrow from. However, over the past few decades, it seems to have become more of a fair trade, with Hollywood now borrowing stories from real-life events as well. Nathan Fielder's documentary about Elizabeth Holmes is one such tale.
Canadian comedian just dropped a trailblazer at the Telluride Film Festival on Sunday by premiering his documentary You Can See Everything. Before diving into what Fielder captured on camera, it's worth understanding exactly who Elizabeth Holmes is and why her story keeps pulling filmmakers back.
Who is Elizabeth Holmes?
Despite her name, Elizabeth Holmes is not another variation of Sherlock or Enola Holmes. In fact, the entity remains on the other side of investigating and uncovering things than the sharp-witted Holmes siblings. Born in 1984 on February 3 in Washington, D.C., Holmes dropped out of Stanford at just nineteen to pursue her own venture, going on to be known as a businesswoman- and not just any businesswoman, but one to be crowned the youngest self-made billionaire, worth $4.5 billion when she was thirty years old. The source of her gigantic net worth and her businesswoman title was Theranos.
Holmes claimed that her corporation raised $724 million from venture capitalists within a few years, which led to the company's valuation being around $9-$10 billion at its peak in 2013-2014; she claimed that its Edison test could detect several medical conditions, even cancer, with just a few drops of blood. But much like the medical breakthroughs she promised, the truth behind Theranos could not stay hidden under a few drops of blood for long.
What did Elizabeth Holmes do wrong?
The crash from a billion dollar evaluation for Theranos was not a smooth one. It started when it became clear that the Edison test were far from accurate. More importantly, Holmes' company was dependent on third-party lab equipment, which is where it would run patients' blood samples. Clearly, this was not something that Elizabeth Holmes had told the investors who added over $700+ Millions to her company. This not only led to the downfall of her company but also her being declared a fraud.
Elizabeth Holmes was federally charged on June 14, 2018, along with her former business partner Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani. Holmes was ultimately convicted in January 2022 on four federal counts, three of wire fraud and one of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, all tied to defrauding investors, while she was acquitted on the charges relating to defrauding patients.
That November, a federal judge sentenced her to 11 years and 3 months in prison, along with three years of supervised release, closing out a trial that had stretched on for nearly four months. Holmes eventually surrendered to federal prison in 2023 to begin serving her sentence, and it is precisely those final, quiet weeks before prison that Nathan Fielder decided to point a camera at.
What is Nathan Fielder's You Can See Everything about?
Nathan Fielder chose the title You Can See Everything carefully, and then buried the film itself under total secrecy, premiering it as Telluride's surprise screening before its October theatrical release. Distributed by A24, Fielder and Lance Oppenheim are bringing possibly the strangest Holmes project yet.
Despite its secretive nature, the documentary on Elizabeth Holmes is not the first of its kind. There have been not one but several projects in all forms of media ranging from books to podcast about the disgraced founder of Theranos. However, this one stands out because rumors about Nathan Fielder visiting Elizabeth Holmes, titled fraudster, in prison.
Hence, the very intrigue 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."
For now, only Telluride audiences with their phones confiscated at the door know exactly what Fielder captured in that room with Holmes. Everyone else will have to wait for October, when You Can See Everything finally lands in theaters and the rest of us get to decide for ourselves whether the title was a promise, a joke, or something far stranger than either.
The title promises you can see everything, but will Fielder actually deliver? Share your predictions in the comments below.
Edited By: Itti Mahajan
