Udy Epstein, principal of Los Angeles-based Seventh Art Releasing, has been screening films non-stop while visiting this year’s Toronto festival. Epstein hopes to pick up a title or two for u.s. distribution, and perhaps worldwide rights for the four-year-old company he cofounded with Jonathan Cordish.

‘Because of commercial considerations, and also because of taste, we’re very very picky,’ says Epstein from a pay phone at the Sheraton Hotel between screenings. Seventh Art handles quality, smaller films and a fair number of documentaries, although Epstein says they have been considering getting out of the non-fiction film distribution business.

‘We keep trying to get away from it but we always come back, because in our experience and expertise, there’s a nice niche there,’ says Epstein. ‘It’s partly because of my personal taste, I always loved documentaries, and we will be picking up more in the future.’

While turning a profit on documentaries can be tough, Epstein says giving non-fiction films a theatrical release in the larger centers of New York, Toronto and l.a. is the first step to having a film do well. ‘Then you have to know your ancillaries,’ he says. ‘We always handle the cable and video ourselves, you can make it work, nobody is going to make a lot of money but a small company can survive.’

Epstein says he was a little miffed at the tiff programmers’ decision not to accept Mark Jonathon Harris’ The Long Way Home, a documentary chronicling Jewish holocaust survivors’ efforts to overcome antagonism and indifference in the struggle to establish a homeland. With narration provided by Morgan Freeman, The Long Way Home played at Montreal and Sundance to warm praise, and Seventh Art, which is handling the world rights, plans to release the film this fall.

‘We’re giving it a theatrical release, which is more than this film would have got any other way,’ says Epstein. ‘We’re opening it on 10 prints on Sept. 19, five in the New York area and five in the l.a. area.’

Epstein says they also plan to screen the film in Miami and San Francisco to generate publicity for the title, but plan to make their money in cable and video. ‘In this case, that ancillary also means the educational market – libraries, Jewish centers, etc.,’ says Epstein, adding that Seventh Art plans to bring the film to Canada, if not on the big screen, at least on video.

Epstein has visited tiff for the past three years, and Seventh Art was the u.s. distributor on Richard J. Lewis’ Whale Music, which opened the ’94 festival. The film, starring Maury Chaykin, was released on a service-deal arrangement that Seventh Art had with Toronto’s Alliance Releasing.

Past champion titles for the u.s. distributor include the docs Man Of The Year and A Perfect Candidate, an account of the 1994 Virginia Senate race between Oliver North and Charles Robb. From War Room producer R.J. Cutter and Dream Deceivers director David Van Taylor, A Perfect Candidate was deemed ‘the best American documentary since Hoop Dreams’ by the The Washington Post.

As for titles at this year’s fest, Epstein likes Michael Moore’s The Big One, The Apostle from Robert Duvall and Evan Dunsky’s Life During Wartime, starring David Arquette.

The biggest challenge for Seventh Art is remaining in contention for distribution rights to these titles with the mini majors such as Miramax and October. Seventh Art may have a better chance with a film like Bill Plympton’s I Married a Strange Person, which Epstein calls ‘very artistic and very interesting.’

Canadian titles catching Epstein’s eye are Thom Fitzgerald’s The Hanging Garden and Mina Shum’s Drive, She Said. Epstein says Seventh Art really wanted the u.s. rights to Shum’s previous effort Double Happiness, starring Sandra Oh.

Epstein likes Toronto for its high-quality program, and says, ‘Even though it’s not a market, everybody’s here.’ To tiff’s strong points, Epstein adds: ‘Another thing is you don’t have the crap. You don’t have the porno alley that you see at Cannes. It’s quality.’