The Lionshare

</noinclude>
The Lionshare is a 2009 independent American film directed and written by Joshua Bernhard. Jessi Kneeland and Michael Pantozzi star as Nick and Eva, a couple who meet through Internet dating and form a relationship based on sharing music and movies on the titular file-sharing site.
Concept
The Lionshare was shot with consumer-grade HD video cameras and has been distributed through the peer-to-peer distribution site VODO, as well as other networks and on DVD. Part of the message of the film is how much media we consume and how we reference it in our daily lives.
Plot
Nick and Eva, two young people on an Internet date, meet at a bar for a beer. They soon decide to rent the movie Ghostbusters at Blockbuster. Since it is not available, they use a torrent site called The Lionshare to download it, and they spend the night together. The next morning Nick wants to see Eva again, but she seems guarded.
Nick tells his friends Bracey and Matty that he met a girl, but refuses to give them any details. Bracey is a guitarist in a band, and suggests that Nick should bring this mysterious girl to see the band. Nick jokes that he's afraid to, since she'll probably go home with Bracey "or some other stubbly, scruffy guitar ."
Eva emails Nick an invitation to join The Lionshare. He joins and starts downloading songs and movies. He tries to contact her but gets no response. The site forces him to start sharing files with others, when his share ratio becomes too low. So he creates a torrent seed file for Bracey's band's demo CD.
Nick continues to try to contact Eva but gets no response. He is increasingly depressed.
At first Bracey is upset that Nick shared an incomplete version of his work without asking him. But later Bracey tells Nick that an agent for a record label downloaded a copy of the work, and it now looks like his band will be signed by the label. Bracey is also excited to introduce his new girlfriend to Nick and Matty.
When they all go out together, Nick is introduced to Eva as Bracey's new girlfriend. Eva privately apologizes and tells Nick she had no idea that Bracey was his friend. Nick says he doesn't mind, but over dinner he snaps at Eva when she casually mentions Ghostbusters.
The next morning Nick goes to download a show and learns that The Lionshare was closed as part of a criminal investigation. He and Matty debate starting their own file sharing site.
Distribution
The film is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License and has been posted on multiple streaming and file-sharing distribution channels since its release.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu