What happens to all those Canadian features after a couple screenings at local film festivals?

Other than a notable few, most end up ­ like Paul DiStefano’s first-time endeavor Trouble ­ sitting in a can collecting dust on a top shelf.

After scrounging up every penny he could find and without any production fund willing to give him a nickel, DiStefano wrote, directed, produced and edited Trouble, and managed to get it into Perspective Canada at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival. But after all that blood, sweat and toil, he couldn’t find a distributor willing to give him a release.

The whole experience didn’t leave DiStefano looking to make another film any time soon, and it was back to the concrete biz for the young filmmaker.

‘From what I hear this is the standard deal,’ he says of the Canadian distribution industry.

But Halina Marie is hoping to change this perception by opening a few doors for young Canadian filmmakers who are far more used to having them slammed in their faces.

Marie, who works for a film acquisition firm in Toronto, saw Trouble at tiff and was struck by its humor. The film follows Gen Xers Al (Scottish actor Tom Smith), an artist who lives in his mom’s garage, and Hector (Calgary-born Trevor Leigh), who drives a cement mixer, as they help a friend rob a band of Brinks bandits.

Marie contacted DiStefano, found out his film was on the shelf and got mad.

‘I thought this is sickening,’ she says. ‘Canadian entertainment companies need to start investing in their own talent. With government financing becoming extinct, who d’es a Canadian filmmaker have to rely on but themselves, which means begging for money from neighbors and maxing credit cards.’

Marie tried to get the company she works for interested in distributing Trouble but they wouldn’t bite. So she decided to take matters into her own hands and rep the film herself.

She wrote letters to her contacts at Toronto’s Bloor Theatre and Calgary’s Uptown Screen, pressing the festival cinemas to support the talent in their own backyards.

‘I really put the pressure on the Uptown, saying ‘Come on, this guy lives practically down the street from you ­ it’s crazy he can’t get a screen in his own hometown.’ ‘

Within a week she got calls from both theaters and wheedled them into fitting Trouble into their schedules.

On a zero-budget promo campaign ­ only a blurb in the festival guide, some posters whacked up near the theater and word of mouth among Marie’s friends and colleagues ­ the Jan. 27 Bloor screening drew an audience of 50.

Realistically the indie isn’t going to attract big crowds, says Marie, and it’s not worth the money to launch a big-bucks campaign. The point of the screen time is to give Trouble some theatrical exposure, and hopefully with a release to his credit, DiStephano will have a window open for financing on future projects.

‘He has another script and it’s really funny,’ she explains. ‘If he can get some financing to try again this guy might really do something one day.’

The Bloor screen also offered DiStefano an unforeseen bonus ­ a lead on the international distribution front. Raven Pictures International, foreign sales agents based in l.a., saw Trouble at the Bloor and want to rep it to international distributors at this month’s American Film Market and cover the costs of cutting a trailer.

‘I always thought outside Canada was more of a realistic thing,’ says DiStefano, who has given up on a Canadian distribution deal. ‘It’s just a fact that new Canadian filmmakers do better in other countries.’

DiStefano is heading up a grassroots promo campaign for the Feb. 28 to March 6 Calgary run, ‘whipping up any exposure’ he can get on nil dollars. He says local newspapers, tv and radio stations are interested in covering the opening and the Uptown is also putting in some promo work since it’s a local film.

Edmonton’s Metro Cinema wants to fit Trouble into its April calendar, and Marie is also working out screen time in Halifax and Vancouver for the same month.

Although Marie dove into the repping scene as a side project she has decided there is a real market for her service and is launching a full-time theater booking business, I.D. Blonde, at the end of this month.

‘At every film festival there is a huge remnant of films not picked up, and I’m sure there are some little gems left behind,’ says Marie, who is going to make it her job to find them.