Alex Winter – Way Too Indie

Deep Web

Dustin Jansick — Fri, 29 May 2015 16:00:33 +0000

After reminiscing on the nostalgic era of Napster in his last documentary Downloaded, Alex Winter is back with another tech doc, this time on the online drug marketplace Silk Road. Narrated by Winter’s old Bill & Ted co-star Keanu Reeves, Deep Web briefly examines a range of topics involving the un-indexed areas of the internet called the deep web, where Silk Road lived and thrived from 2011 to 2013. The title is a bit misleading though since most of the documentary details the prosecution of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and pleads for his defense, barely discussing other topics on the deep web.

Deep Web spends the first five minutes brining non-techie viewers up to speed on the dark net, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, and the anonymous web browsing tool Tor. While this crash course is actually quite informational (even for the more tech savvy), it’s an onslaught of information as the documentary presents facts on-screen in rapid-fire succession. But for those who couldn’t take down notes fast enough, the important details are that Silk Road was an underground marketplace that make it easy for users to buy illegal drugs. The concept is kind of like eBay, only that it mainly involved drugs and handled transactions anonymously to remain untraceable. In a little over two years, the site amassed nearly 960,000 users with an estimated $1.2 billion in sales.

Naturally, the moment the government caught wind of this hidden empire it became extremely interested. Gawker was credited as one of the first mainstream outlets to expose the site to the general public. Soon, everyone wanted to know who was behind the operation, some mysterious figure under the username Dread Pirate Roberts (referencing The Princess Bride). This included Wired Magazine journalist Andy Greenberg, who joined Silk Road early on and managed to land an interview with the notoriously elusive DPR. While he didn’t uncover the true identity of the mastermind, Greenberg discovered that DPR was a strong-minded libertarian who believed in free-commerce, idealistic principles, and promoting safe drug use. Which was something he respected on some level, even if he didn’t agree with everything the man allegedly did. Greenberg remained a prominent figure in the documentary, providing valuable insights from his research and adding intelligent perspective on the case.

Eventually the authorities pin everything on Ross Ulbricht, a man who they believe created and ran the online drug trafficking site. Along with that is the accusation that Ulbricht attempted several murder-for-hires to off those who may have leaked information on the site. Of course, his family and close friends proclaim his innocence. Once Ulbricht was apprehended, the documentary shifts into conspiracy mode, putting the legality of the FBI tactics in tracking him into question, and whether he was the only administrator using that moniker.

The problem with Deep Web isn’t that it becomes overly subjective (which it does), it’s the ineffective way the film gets it’s point across. The best example is the attempt to downplay some of the negative media attention on Silk Road. Showing a brief clip from a local news story about a six-year-old kid addicted to drugs purchased from Silk Road—a legitimate concern—is followed by an interview with a high-profile seller on the site who prides himself on refusing to sell heroin to customers who “aren’t mature enough.” Not only is this a weak argument for Silk Road’s stance on promoting safe practices, but it’s an unfair assumption that all sellers are that responsible, because clearly they are not. But the documentary downplays the harm that could come from such easy access to drugs, hardly even posing the question.

This leads to the biggest downfall of Winter’s documentaries. He doesn’t ask the hard ethical questions about his controversial subjects. It would’ve been interesting to learn Greenberg’s thoughts on the concept of selling drugs online, if the good outweighs the bad? Or better yet, if Ulbricht’s family would still support him if he was in fact the founder of the site. Also, there were a lot of angles explored, perhaps too many. Is the film about the legitimacy of Silk Road, the nature of the deep web, the war on drugs, for-profit incarceration, online privacy, constitutional rights, or Ross Ulbricht? Winter touches on all of these topics, but never forms a unified narrative out of them.

Deep Web delivers a one-sided expostulation for the war on drugs, the importance of encrypting data from an ever-intruding government, and the fall of the largest online platform for selling illegal drugs. But the documentary lacks direction as Winter attempts to juggle too much at once. It doesn’t stack up to other recent tech docs such as The Internet’s Own Boy and Citizenfour, which were successful at humanizing their anti-heroes while demonstrating their significance to protecting our digital rights. Unfortunately for Winter, he started this documentary before Ulbricht’s trial where he admitted to being the founder of Silk Road. Maybe Ulbricht didn’t end up being the protagonist he hoped? One of the many questions left unanswered.

Deep Web premiered on EPIX.

Silk Road Documentary ‘Deep Web’ Debuts Trailer Before SXSW

Ryan Smith — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 22:45:04 +0000

Ahead of its SXSW World Premiere, Alex Winter’s new Silk Road documentary Deep Web has just released a brand new teaser trailer. This trailer promises a very interesting, highly complicated story surrounding the case of Ross Ulbricht who was recently convicted of all seven charges he was facing. This story also touches on the importance these issues will have on the future of our online rights, the economy and the government’s involvement in such issues. Deep Web is directed by Alex Winter (Downloaded) and executive produced by Seth Gordon (the unbelievably entertaining King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters) and will be premiering on March 15th at SXSWWatch Deep Web Trailer

Deep Web Poster

Downloaded

Dustin Jansick — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

If you are in your mid-twenties to mid-thirties there is a good chance that you have used the program Napster to download music files from the internet. Back in the late ‘90s Napster exploded rapidly in popularity beyond just college campuses, reaching roughly 50 million users at its peak sharing music files with each other. Although Napster was shut down by the music industry over a decade ago, Downloaded explains how significant it was in shaping the way we purchase music today, but more importantly, how it changed the way people use the internet.

Downloaded begins similarly to how Napster took over the internet; messy, chaotic, and so fast it is hard to keep up. Before the documentary spirals off into a whirlwind it begins with a brief prologue that details how Napster began using clever visuals that mimic the old-school chat rooms it was born in. From there it quickly jumps around to several areas including all the media hype at the height of Napster’s popularity, the upbringing of one of co-founders (Shawn Fanning), and a quick history lesson on how singles and albums got their popularity in the 1950’s. Eventually, the documentary begins to feel comfortable in its own skin, and tells the story of the rise and fall of Napster in a chronological order.

Like most successful technology, it is impossible to comprehend the significance of Napster unless you experienced what it was like without it. But it was important for more than just the obvious reasons. The first thing the documentary touches on is that the program was also a way for people to communicate by adding friends (users) using its chat rooms before social networks really took off. The other thing people tend to forget about Napster is that it not only provided a way to obtain the latest (sometimes even pre-released) music, but it also was a way to get rare import tracks, live recordings, and other material that was not commercially available for everyone.

Downloaded does not take a very balanced approach, showing its bias toward pro-Napster in almost every scene. While Napster may have been originally intended as a means to discover (or steal, depending on who you ask) music, it was mostly used as a method to get free music that you would normally have to pay for. Even after all of these years, the founders of the program still skirt around this issue as if they were speaking in front of a courtroom instead of a camera. This makes the whole experience less intimate and more as if they are still trying to convince naysayers of its legitimacy long after the fact.

With almost 30 minutes left of the documentary, it had already shown the fall of Napster and that all the additional investments to revive the company was pointless. Yet Downloaded just keeps the cameras rolling and shifts towards detailing the effects had on the music industry. Which leads to the fundamental issue of the documentary; is it the story of Napster, downloading in general, or the music industry? Although the title does not explicitly indicate it would have to be solely about Napster, 90% of the documentary revolves around it. Thus, Downloaded becomes unbalanced when it begins to focus more on the music industry and less on Napster. With a few tweaks it could easily be a documentary about the fall of the music industry and how it looked at Napster as the enemy instead of a potential friend.

Most people familiar with the story are not going to find very many hidden gems in Downloaded, but the documentary does serve as an enjoyable nostalgic recount of the Napster era for those who experienced it. However, this will be much more beneficial for those who know little to nothing about the history and have not experienced anything outside of iTunes for music delivery. So while Downloaded is an informative piece on how Napster revolutionized digital music, it does not go out of its way to investigate anything new. Shawn Fanning always looks as if he is holding something back, especially when the camera focuses in on him staring intensely at the ground, making it seem like the documentary is content with showing his state of inner turmoil without actually exploring it.

Downloaded trailer