At last! A Billion Lives comes to the UK

Warning: This is not a review. Stay tuned ...

It's almost a year since I first wrote about the pro-vaping documentary A Billion Lives directed by Aaron Biebert and produced by Attention Era Media.

I'd seen a trailer and wrote a post about it (More prejudice and propaganda). The following day I quoted Carl Phillips, a long-term advocate of tobacco harm reduction, who seemed to share some of my concerns (A billion comments):

The title alone has made me wonder. It seems to imply that every one of the world's one billion smokers' lives would be improved – nay, saved!! – by vaping. Seems like rather a stretch, to say the least.

Despite this the project continued to interest me and I followed its progress all the way to its world premiere in New Zealand and subsequent screenings in Poland, Australia, South Africa and France.

To say I was surprised by the lack of enthusiasm when A Billion Lives was shown to delegates at the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw is an understatement. Several delegates and speakers feature in the film but the reaction was lukewarm at best.

In the months that followed Biebert and his team picked up awards at a number of film festivals.

Back in the UK however there was still no sign of a red carpet premiere – or any screening. I was told subsequently that Biebert tried to organise a screening at the Guildhall in London but couldn't raise the £15,000 needed.

No matter. Back in his home city of Milwaukee the North American premiere was officially a full house – 1400 seats sold with some supporters travelling hundreds of miles to be there.

Meanwhile moves were afoot to host screenings in Hollywood and New York.

Unable, I assume, to secure a general cinema release, Biebert then announced an interesting new initiative. Via Demand.Film, screenings could be organised at no cost (and therefore no risk) to the host in the UK, Australia and New Zealand if there was sufficient demand.

A similar deal was reached with another distributor in the USA.

It works like this. Individuals or organisations apply to host a screening on a preferred date at a preferred location.

The distributor handles everything except the marketing. It's the job of the host to promote the event and drive ticket sales. A minimum number of tickets (approximately 60) must be sold before a screening is confirmed.

Two weeks ago eleven screenings were scheduled for the UK, beginning on October 26, the 'global launch' date. So far only three have met their minimum sales target. Six have been cancelled and two more await their fate (cancellation seems inevitable).

In recent weeks I have been critical, not of vapers but of pro-vaping bodies that have failed to meet the challenge of organising a central London screening to which MPs and journalists could have been invited.

I'm not underestimating the difficulty of attracting even a handful of opinion formers but the lack of leadership – in comparison to New York for example – is extraordinary.

Six weeks ago, astounded by the degree of apathy, I registered to host a screening in Westminster. Apart from a central London location, I had one request – I wanted to follow the film with a Q&A.

The reason was simple. Having reservations about the film (which I still hadn't seen) I wanted the opportunity to criticise it if I felt it deserved it.

I also thought that a panel of speakers with potentially contrasting opinions would be more entertaining and might attract a larger audience, especially if one or two panelists were reasonably well known.

Four weeks and a handful of emails later, the distributors had failed to confirm a date or a venue. The question I've been asked is, why bother at all? Again, the reason is simple.

I love organising 'events' and a film premiere had the potential to be a special occasion. Also, even if I didn't like A Billion Lives, vaping is a hot topic and the film seemed worthy of debate.

Truth be told, I had also been seduced by Aaron Biebert's tireless globetrotting and his determination to market his film to a wider audience.

Some vapers were telling him to put A Billion Lives on YouTube where they could watch it for free and Biebert was quite rightly telling them to get stuffed (in so many words).

He responded politely (if a little sadly) to one or two of my observations on this blog and I genuinely began to like the guy, even though I don't know him at all.

This week A Billion Lives finally premiered in the UK. The screening took place at the Odeon in Braehead, Glasgow. There were 40 or so people in the auditorium and I was one of them.

It was a far cry from the Hollywood premiere that took place a few hours later, or the NYC screening (with Q&A!) hosted by Jeff Stier, senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington, but credit to organiser Andy Morrison for pulling it off.

I'll publish my review later today.