Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim debut secret Elizabeth Holmes doc at Telluride

Secret premiere at Telluride

Audiences at the Telluride Film Festival attended an unannounced screening at the Herzog Theatre on Sunday night, revealing the documentary You Can See Everything. Distribution company A24 organized the event under strict security precautions, requiring staff to confiscate cell phones from every attendee before entry into the packed auditorium. Festival attendees and industry reporters had speculated for days about the Sunday evening mystery slot on the schedule. IndieWire had contacted A24 before the screening to ask about rumors of a secret Nathan Fielder film, and the studio confirmed the title while requesting that the news remain embargoed until the screening began. The finished documentary clocks in at over two hours in length.

Production and director collaboration

You Can See Everything is directed jointly by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. Fielder is known as the creator and star of comedy television projects including Nathan For You, The Rehearsal, and The Curse. Oppenheim previously directed the documentary Some Kind of Heaven and entered the festival circuit earlier in the week with Primetime, his narrative feature starring Robert Pattinson that debuted at the Venice Film Festival. The two filmmakers spent several years developing the documentary without public announcements. An official logline released by A24 outlines that filming began 34 days before Holmes reported to federal prison, following an invitation from Holmes to document her daily life. That initial filming expanded into a three-year project tracking her circumstances.

Focus on Elizabeth Holmes

The documentary centers on Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the blood-testing startup Theranos. Holmes rose to prominence in Silicon Valley before investigative reporting revealed that the company's proprietary blood-testing technology did not function as claimed. Federal prosecutors subsequently charged Holmes with defrauding investors, resulting in a conviction and a prison sentence of over a decade. She is currently serving her term at a federal prison facility in Bryan, Texas. Holmes was previously the subject of the 2019 documentary The Inventor by Alex Gibney, as well as the Hulu scripted miniseries The Dropout, in which Amanda Seyfried portrayed her. Industry reports noted persistent rumors that Seyfried might appear in character in Fielder's project.

Trailer details and release plans

To accompany the Telluride screening, A24 released a teaser trailer showing direct interactions between Fielder and Holmes. The footage captures the pair looking at each other closely while discussing whether Holmes is presenting an authentic persona on camera. During the exchange, Holmes defends her transparency to the filmmaker.

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.

In the trailer, Fielder responds by saying, "OK. Alright. OK, good chat," before asking if she is being real, to which Holmes replies that she is always being real. The project follows Fielder's previous secret endeavours, including earning a pilot license without public notice. A24 plans to release You Can See Everything in movie theaters in October.