Yes I Am â The Ric Weiland Story is a 2021 American documentary film directed by Aaron Bear. Narrated by actor Zachary Quinto, the film profiles Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Ric Weiland, tracing his innovations in early personal-computer software, his substantial LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS philanthropy, and his long-private struggle with depression. The picture premiered at the 2021 Provincetown International Film Festival and later screened at Mountainfilm, Inside Out Toronto, and more than a dozen other LGBTQ or documentary events. In 2024 the documentary received a Special Recognition Award at the 35th GLAAD Media Awards.
Through archival footage and first-person interviews with colleagues such as Bill Gates, the film charts Weiland's trajectory from prodigious Lakeside School programmer to Microsoft's second employee. It documents his decision to leave the company in 1988, his subsequent donations exceeding US$200 million to LGBTQ, environmental, and health charities, and his death by suicide in 2006. The narrative juxtaposes Weiland's public generosity with private journals that reveal impostor-syndrome and HIV-related depression, framing his legacy within the broader history of queer visibility in tech.
Director Aaron Bear began principal photography in 2016 after securing the cooperation of Weiland's partner Mike Schaefer and the trustees of the Weiland estate. World of Wonder founders Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato boarded the project as executive producers, bringing financing and post-production resources. Filming spanned Seattle, Silicon Valley, and New York City, with interviews that include Bill Gates & Urvashi Vaid, extensive personal diaries, photographs, and never before seen photos of Microsoft during its infancy. Ric's diaries were digitized at Stanford University Libraries' Special Collections.
The film debuted at the 2021 Provincetown International Film Festival followed by Mountainfilm (Telluride), OUTshine (Miami), Inside Out (Toronto), and the Palm Springs Cinema Diverse festival.
Kino Lorber issued the documentary on region-A DVD on June 13, 2023;. WOW Presents Plus acquired worldwide VOD rights later that year, making the title available for streaming from November 15, 2023.
Critics praised the film's blend of tech history and queer biography.
Since release, the film has been used by LGBTQ nonprofitsâÂÂincluding GLSEN and Lambda LegalâÂÂas a fundraising and educational tool; screenings on World AIDS Day 2023 were paired with mental-health panels in Seattle and Ventura County. Stanford Libraries cited the documentary as a catalyst for its 2024 digital exhibit on the Ric Weiland papers, crediting the film with renewed scholarly interest in early queer tech history.