An award-winning film being viewed at Yale University and Carnegie-Mellon University has been stirring up controversy — it is a full-length pornographic film.

CMU screened "Pirates" several times at their student union, and many informal viewing parties of the film have been sprouting up all over the Yale campus.

Joone, the director of "Pirates" and founder of Digital Playground — the company that produced the film — said he has "no idea" why "Pirates" has been popular around these campuses, besides the unusual amount of production value that was put into this film, along with a "great cast."

"When I first saw some of the stuff going on, I was like 'wow,'" Joone said.

Digital Playground allowed the CMU Activities Board to screen the film without charge, under the condition that the film would be advertised on campus.

Andrew Moore, chairperson of the CMU Activities Board, said the board's film committee typically shows one adult film per semester, usually listed as "to be announced" to avoid unwanted attention.

Moore also said because of their agreement with Digital Playground, this film was openly listed as pornography, which led to an "uproar among some people," including the CMU chapter of the Intervarsity Christians Fellowship.

A forum was held by the CMU Dean of Student Affairs regarding this movie, which Moore said was not to debate whether or not to screen the movie, but was a place where people could voice their opinions.

"Many people didn't even know it went on in the first place," Moore said. "The [adult films] that are picked are the goofier variety … They're not extremely dirty or violent, they're just chosen for their goofiness."

Robin Schmoldt, film advisor for the Wisconsin Union Directorate, said there has never been a proposal while she has been working for WUD to screen an adult film on the University of Wisconsin campus, but added she does not know of anything that would prevent such a screening.

"It is potentially possible that any kind of film could be shown here depending on what [the current WUD] group of students will vote for," Schmoldt said. "[But] it hasn't come up."

Movies shown by WUD vary from year to year, Schmoldt said, depending on the students who make up the committee. She added WUD's policy is to work with students to make good decisions as to what movies are appropriate for certain venues on campus.

"Midnight Movies … at Union South have shown some films that are more risqué because they do focus on cult cinema classics," Schmoldt said, adding that such films would not be shown at a higher traffic area, such as the Rathskeller.

Moore said he attributes the popularity of "Pirates" to the fact that it is the largest budget adult film of all time, complete with computer generated images. He also said students are attracted to the similarities between "Pirates" and the better-known Hollywood movie, "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Joone said his film's budget topped $1 million.

Adult Magazine News granted "Pirates" 24 nominations for awards, 11 of which the movie won.

Moore said the total attendance of this movie exceeded 1,100 people. There were three showings of "Pirates" at the CMU student union, he said, with the number of students wanting to attend exceeding the capacity of the theatre.