The Mighty Celt Director Slams DVD Pirates
Posted at 9:31 AM (PDT) on Monday, September 12, 2005

The People
September 11, 2005
Ulster Edition

I'm Disgusted; Ulster Film Director Slams DVD Pirates for Killing Cinema
By Liz Trainor

Top Ulster film-maker Pearse Elliott has blamed DVD bootleggers for "killing off the movie experience" in Northern Ireland. Belfast-born Pearse - whose latest movie The Mighty Celt is playing in cinemas across the UK - claims there is a growing bootleg culture which makes it harder to get people into the cinema.

"Most people in Northern Ireland have seen my movies but many of them wait for the DVD - and I suspect some of them are pirate copies," he complained.

A major force in Irish cinema Pearse enjoyed huge box office success last year with his first feature length movie, the comedy Man About Dog.It ranked eighth at the Irish box office last year ahead of some of Hollywood's top offerings. But Pearse has complained that the success wasn't mirrored in Northern Ireland. And his latest film - starring former X-Files beauty Gillian Anderson and top British actors Ken Stott and Robert Carlyle - is also playing to packed cinemas across the Republic. But that too has been slower to take off this side of the border.

Pearse squarely lays the blame with a counterfeit DVD culture for the slump. "Man About Dog went down a storm in the Republic," he said. "It was one of the biggest grossing movies of last year coming in as the number eight highest earner and that's some feat when it's up against all the American movies. But it didn't go down so well in the North - yet everyone I know has seen it!"

"There seems to be a culture of 'I'll wait for the DVD' and there's so many ways of getting your hands on one now before it even comes out in the shop. Between bootleggers whether criminal or paramilitary that's one thing but it's really easy now for people to burn a movie from their computer. Traditionally we don't have a great cinema-going audience and I think people are happy enough to sit around and wait. Many of them get it from the video shop but there's a big culture of the pirate DVD - how can anyone enjoy the experience of watching a movie with people's heads moving about at the front of the screen. It's just ludicrous and ruins the whole experience. It also hits us hard in the industry, more than people know. There are livelihoods at stake."

Pearse's latest film The Mighty Celt starring Gillian Anderson, has been well received at the box office as well as major critical acclaim. It tells the story of one Belfast boy's love of a greyhound who turns out to be a champion racer against the odds.

Now Pearse, who's back to the drawing board working on his latest project, says his next movie will be aimed at the US market. "The Observer named The Mighty Celt Film of the Week and it has been getting rave reviews but that's not being reflected at the box offices. I'm going to turn my hand now to a movie with an international feel - the US market is the way to go," he confessed.