The self-styled pro-vaping, anti-corruption documentary A Billion Lives had its world premiere in New Zealand on Wednesday.

If I appear a little obsessed by this film it's because I am. I have a professional interest in the subject but I'm also drawn to independent projects like this.

The promotion of a small budget anti-establishment movie intrigues me and it was strangely exciting to follow director Aaron Biebert and his family and crew to Wellington and experience, even from a distance of 11,500 miles, the opening night on Periscope.

I'm such a stalker that I even watched, via Twitter, a clip of their plane landing in New Zealand.

Of course I have serious reservations about the film and while it would be unfair to leap to conclusions before I see it the first reviews confirm my fears.

Lavishing the film with praise, one reviewer described A Billion Lives as "like the Fahrenheit 9/11 of tobacco". That alone should set alarm bells ringing but consider this.

We were promised a film that would explore alleged corruption in government, public health and even the pharmaceutical industry. A Billion Lives may do all those things but here's what the first reviewers chose to highlight:

Becky: I’m a smoker and if nothing else, I’ve learned I cannot trust the tobacco industry or any big business involved in my healthcare.

Ryan: Since the tobacco industry used to lie about the dangers of smoking – denying their knowledge of that fact for decades before being held accountable for it – they have proven themselves untrustworthy and corrupt. How can anyone believe anything they say or those they influence?

Becky: Watching this movie makes it obvious that the tobacco industry and our government just think we’re all a bunch of shmucks who will believe anything. It makes you feel like they have zero respect for our ability to make sound decisions about our health, based on facts.

A second review headlined A Billion Lives has world premiere in New Zealand, revealing powerful forces aiding the tobacco industry appears to confirm that message:

Filmmaker Aaron Biebert ... journeyed to 13 countries on four continents to find similar patterns worldwide: here is a life-saving technology of e-cigarettes, but governments were banning them or fining citizens over their use, ignoring the science and deciding to be complicit with the tobacco industry in keeping people addicted to a harmful product.

Look, I don't want to come across as an apologist for the tobacco industry. Goodness knows the tobacco companies have done some dumb things in the past but in 2016 Big Tobacco is not the problem, it's part of the solution, or should be.

One of the locations where Biebert filmed was the "vaper-friendly" Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw. I understand he conducted a number of interviews when he was there last year but did he make any attempt to interview some of the tobacco company representatives who were there too?

Surely this would have been a great opportunity to get some comments straight from the horse's mouth? Instead, according to this second review, "the pro-smoking side was represented through historical clips".

Likewise, as he went from country to country, did Biebert interview any smokers who don't want to quit? Again, according to this review, "Vaping essentially allows one to get the pleasure of nicotine without the harm of the tar and toxins."

It's very easy to be critical of the tobacco industry if you accept the myth that every consumer is addicted to nicotine and vaping allows people to transfer that addiction to a less harmful product, but it ignores something else – the pleasure of smoking.

Nicotine is a factor in people's addiction to or enjoyment of smoking but there are other factors, as readers of this blog have confirmed many times.

Anyway, read the first reviews of A Billion Lives for yourself. I'm trying hard to keep an open mind, I really am, but it's not easy.

The director sounds nice, though:

Becky: Aaron is ... refreshingly Milwaukeean; sincere and doe-eyed. He seems naturally unrehearsed in his delivery, which I appreciated as a thinking and analytical person who is not receptive to preaching. I don’t want to be told what to think, and although he had a clear opinion, I did not feel any urgency from him to blindly agree with him. Instead, I saw him as a human being with an earnest interest in learning more.

Ryan: He’s real. Midwesterners are known to be welcoming and kind and he effuses those qualities.

Becky: He’s also super cute.

I wonder if they'll put that on the poster ... Better than "People are going to die".

PS. I've just noticed that director Aaron Biebert has commented on a previous post (No UK premiere for A Billion Lives (yet). Why not?)

Given this post it's only fair I include his comments here too:

Simon, I'm starting to like you. Thanks for all the advice and support.

I also wanted to clarify that the official announcement was this one, not your screenshot.

You'll be happy to know that our sold out world premiere at the Oscar-qualifying DocEdge film festival was a great success.

Seems like everyone had a fun night out. We were thrilled to see Sir Richard Taylor, politicians, athletes, doctors, and others join us.

Check out our Facebook page to learn more about what the critics are saying now.

Thanks, Aaron. I'm beginning to like you too. Jury is out on your film, though.