Many filmmakers and artists in other creative industries have spoken out against peer-to-peer file sharing because they believe that P2P sites are a detriment to the industry and rob them of profits they should be making for their work. One filmmaker, however, has a radically different view of file-sharing, which she has demonstrated with the release of her new movie.
Stina Bergman has made a highly unusual move with the release of her film, Die Beauty, by premiering it not only in movie theaters, but also on The Pirate Bay, the largest BitTorrent website on the internet.
“For me a release on The Pirate Bay was an obvious thing to do because I believe that it, without competition, is the best way to promote a film today,” Bergman said in a recent interview with TorrentFreak. “Not only do I get thousands of viewers on the web, I am also convinced that the release will increase the number of people watching it on the big screen. It’s a fact that people watch more movies when the access increases, and that’s a good thing. As a filmmaker I want to take advantage of that.”
Die Beauty is currently posted on The Pirate Bay with 789 seeders. A personal note from Bergman appears on the page encouraging everyone to, “please download, seed, and spread!”
So far, it appears that Bergman has made a smart move with her decision. Die Beauty is obviously getting a great deal of free marketing exposure because of the unusual circumstance, which is likely to translate into more theater traffic than the film would have received otherwise, just as she had planned.
I sincerely hope that the film sees some great returns thanks to The Pirate Bay exposure it is receiving and I would love to see other filmmakers try this sort of unconventional tactic. Hopefully Bergman will follow up with the press and share the outcome of this experiment.
