BitTorrent Supports Filmmaking Festival

Former bad-boy file-sharing technology BitTorrent aims to improve its industry credibility - and help indie filmmakers - by supporting the Duke City Shootout short film festival.

BitTorrent has announced it is supporting the Duke City Shootout filmmaking festival, an annual week-long filmmaking competition overseen by the Digital Filmmaking Institute. In a nutshell, the Duke City Shootout pits seven screenwriters against each other to shoot, edit, and debut their 12-minute short films all in one week. BitTorrent will be hosting this year’s films, and already has the 42 shorts from the festival’s previous six years online.

“By teaming with DFI and supporting festivals such as the Duke CityShootout, BitTorrent is giving independent artists an audience theywouldn’t otherwise reach,” said Ashwin Navin, President of BitTorrent.”Although festivals showcase some of the best entertainment created today,most of these films never reach a global audience. We expect the indie filmcommunity to gain tremendously from the advent of high-quality Internetvideo distribution.”

“By partnering with BitTorrent, our participating artists have accessto the world’s most efficient distribution platform for rich digitalcontent,” said Reggie Russell, CEO of DFI. “Furthermore, with 65 millionBitTorrent users worldwide, Shootout filmmakers both past and present willnow be able to showcase their works beyond the confines of the festival.”

The partnership with DFI not only lets BitTorrent gain a foothold with independent filmmakers, but may also enhance the technology’s credibility with mainstream media as it continues to convert itself from a hotbed of copyright infringement to a legitimate media distribution channel.