silent documentary review
Director: Selina Miles
Star Rating: ★★★
Actor Amber Heard takes on a poignant role in the new documentary Silenced, which premiered in the World Cinema Documentary Competition section at Sundance. But the actress wants to clarify that this is not her story to tell, as she really had no choice. “This is not about me. I’ve lost my ability to speak. I’m not here to tell my story. I don’t want to tell my story. In fact, I don’t want to use my voice anymore. That’s the problem,” she says, speaking directly to the camera.
Base
Silenced tells her story, but from the perspective of international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson, who worked with Heard during the 2018 lawsuit filed by Heard’s ex-husband Johnny Depp against British newspaper The Sun. It is Robinson’s perspective that comes first, and she is one of many women whose stories are explored in the context of how defamation laws are used to silence the stories/witnesses of survivors and victims.
Jennifer Robinson, whose 2022 book How Many More Women? How the Law Silences Women, which inspired the film, wastes no time in unpacking and weaving together multiple stories. Directed by Selina Miles, who uses a vérité approach to great effect, Silenced also considers the parallel cases of Mexico-based journalist Catalina Ruiz-Navarro and former federal government employee Brittany Higgins. As Miles moves from one case to the next, the details are explored quite closely, overlapping information, testimony and personal observations.
Immediacy plays a key role in the film’s anger-inducing, shocking power. It demands your anger and puts it into question how much women have to lose when they decide to speak out. Misogyny, online harassment and public vitriol are all explored here, but because there’s so much ground to cover, it never really gets into one case in particular.
Silence is filled with the right kind of anger, but sometimes, it forgets to draw the line. From the breakdown of the MeToo movement, to the case of Giselle Pellicote, to the details of Andrew Tate and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, The Silenced is packed with compelling stories, but too many stories are glossed over to fit into its 97-minute runtime.
final thoughts
Silence doesn’t spend enough time with Robinson himself to truly understand the effects of the legal system and his role in working out the vast expansion of defamation laws over the past few years. Even the Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively affair has come to light, but it’s ongoing, and the film only adds context to how terms like defamation lawsuits and online smear campaigns have become more common than ever.
This is a film that wants to depict a history along these lines of trials swinging in the other direction. But the truth is that there is no immediate finish line in sight. It’s scary but what’s the point if there’s no hope? It’s a film that requires more time and a tighter structure, but it still serves as a cautionary tale of battles yet to be fought. These voices will not be silenced.