Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates (TV Series 2019)

‘Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates’ takes a candid and delicate look into the mind of ever-intriguing billionaire Bill Gates. During the course of filming, one of Bill’s friends wonders how it must feel for him to always be the smartest person in a conversation. He is always answering and teaching, despite his love for learning and asking questions. This could make a traditional question-and-answer interview form incredibly stale, but the interviewer and filmmaker Davis Guggenheim manages to match Bill’s manner perfectly. His questions are open and easy, allowing Bill to narrate in his own words with a freedom that is hard to find elsewhere. Guggenheim’s prompts are never expected and rarely linked: at one point he asks about snack foods, following that question with “and what is your biggest fear?”. Bill doesn’t miss a beat, and this constant conversational energy is what carries the portrayal so gracefully through different topics.

The three-part documentary explores charity, relationships and childhood. It is cleanly planned and romantically explored, allowing even the smallest of details to become significant if Bill deems them to be so. The first episode, especially, explores very complex topics and the film manages to make this both understandable for the viewer and interesting for Bill, a dichotomy that continues through all three parts. This film is not necessarily designed to show Bill Gates in his intellectual element (you can find a never ending stream of content online for that), instead it is an intimate portrait of the man who, despite fame and billions, remains grounded and endearingly geeky.

Bill Gates has spoken about the film-making experience with immense respect, which is perhaps why the series is so successful. There is a mutual respect between asker and answerer, learner and teacher, Davis and Bill. One main focus of the series is his propensity to work in pairs: from school fairs to professional partnerships to his marriage, and, now, an exquisite documentary film. Bill’s willingness to work in pairs and Guggenheim’s desire to facilitate a true and candid look into the Gates’ world creates a truly wonderful watch that is simultaneously educational and beautiful.