Sundance: Documentary dives deep into the fraud of Theranos
PARK CITY, Utah — Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney has always been interested in the psychology of fraud and self-deception. So when HBO CEO Richard Plepler and Graydon Carter proposed that he look into the blood-testing startup Theranos and its charismatic young leader Elizabeth Holmes, saying yes was a “no-brainer.”
The film, “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,” premiered Thursday on opening night of the Sundance Film Festival.
Theranos had promised that it would revolutionize health care with cost transparency and blood-testing technology that would require less blood. Sporting black turtlenecks, and Stanford-dropout bragging rights, Holmes was touted as the “next Steve Jobs” and Theranos was at one point valued at over $9 billion. Just two years later, amid investigations by the Wall Street Journal into the inaccuracies of the technology, and then by the Securities and Exchange Commission, that valuation went to $0.