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Sundance ‘26: ‘SILENCED’ Relitigates the Amber Heard–Johnny Depp Trial Through the Lens of Weaponized Defamation Law

Historically, men would duel to the death when their reputations were tarnished, but international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson argues that “too many men were dying that way, so they introduced defamation laws.” This was supposed to be a more civilized method—allow legal practitioners to decide what is and is not true regarding reputation and levy fees accordingly—but the rise of the circus of social media has thrown that presumption into question. This begs the question: can the legal system be influenced by social media, especially in an age of bots and the proliferation of the “manosphere”? And if so, how can one limit juror bias and land on anything resembling objective jurisprudence? This is a question that documentarian Selina Miles’ Silenced aims to answer, in part by relitigating the extremely high-profile Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp abuse case. Read More