Deep Web

Silk Road, set up on the part of the internet closed to search engines, became a marketplace where drugs were bought and sold with Bitcoin. The FBI arrested Ross Ulbricht as its alleged founder, and the case set precedents in both technology and law. The film is not interested in the drug trade. It is interested in evidence: how the investigation was conducted, how the server was found, and what the defence objected to about that. The questions about Ulbricht's identity live here too. The form is interview-led: journalists, defence lawyers, figures from the crypto world and Ulbricht's family. Keanu Reeves reads the narration. Alex Winter directed. He came to directing from acting, and technology documentaries are his continuing subject; he had already made a film about Napster. Who it is for: anyone interested in the history of the internet, arguments about cryptocurrency, and legal cases. Who it is not for: viewers expecting neutrality. The film largely proceeds from the defence's point of view and gives little space to the harm Silk Road caused.