Arrrr...

A friend of mine randomly messaged me on the chat feature of Facebook the other day urging me to watch "Steal this Film" and then blog about it, before returning to her usual set-building. At the time, I was clueless as to her apparently random passion on the subject. However, now, having seen both parts of the documentary, it makes as much sense as the diet of an athlete. She probably chose me since I am a filmmaker, and was interested in my take on the whole piracy issue.

So, here's the deal folks. I don't really care about piracy. If someone copies my film and puts it on the internet, it is nothing but a stroke of my artistic ego. The "someone" obviously thought the project to be good enough to share with millions of others. It only helps to strengthen my reputation as an artist. The Hollywood studios seem to be thinking only in terms of business and overlook the artistic side completely (as expected). All those ads you see of people fed by the industry asking you not to copy stuff is absolute hogwash. All those people are salaried, including the biggest of directors, and the only people who really "loose" money are the already bourgeois studio executives.

Also, the studios have this totally pessimistic view of things. If the product is really really good, the audience will flock to the theaters to watch it a second time, because no matter what anyone says, comparing watching a film in a theater to squinting into differentiating pixels on your forced perspective computer monitor, is like comparing eating a Brazilian steak to consuming a packet of Knorr or Campbell soup at home. And I am not just saying that because I am a film fanatic, and would watch any decent movie in a theatre, and that my laziness doesn't allow me to look for fullproof torrents online and that I am more likely to be found haunting electronics stores going out of business (read SirKit Seetee) for discounted DVD's.

The filmmaker in me cannot but help analyze the documentary film. Firstly, it is too long. I kept loosing interest and hallucinating about future Oscar speeches, especially when they went down this long winded history lesson on the printing of the Bible. Also, they kept harping on the same points (which, don't get me wrong, are good) for far too long, thus underestimating the intellect of the target audience, trying too hard to impress. Having thrown all the dirty linen at you first, let me say that the ending of the second part was as clear as a sunny sky after a night full of rain. It talks about the limiting nature of anti-piracy laws on one's creativity and the shadows it casts on one's innate goodness. I was also impressed by the haphazard structure of the documentary, as if to say, there isn't really a structure to creativity.