Edmonton: Emerging and veteran filmmakers from Canada and abroad met over eight days at the Local Heroes International Film Festival in Edmonton to share their experiences making films and getting them on the big screen. They also had the opportunity to screen 57 films, both international and Canadian.

The consensus among attendees to the 14th annual festival, March 31 to April 8, is that the event served as an important venue for issues and challenges facing filmmakers today.

‘At festivals such as Toronto and Vancouver everyone is looking to make a deal and it puts all the filmmakers in a competitive situation,’ says Alberta producer John Hazlett, who screened his latest film Bad Money at Local Heroes. ‘This festival allowed us to look at each other’s work and understand what each other is doing. It’s rejuvenating to actually talk about movies and feed yourself creatively.’

Among the common challenges voiced by filmmakers at the festival is the difficulty getting films financed, and then getting them onscreen.

The time required to finance a project has driven a number of filmmakers go the ultra-low budget digital route.

Irish filmmaker Liam O’Mochain, for example, spent more than a year trying to get his debut feature, The Book That Wrote Itself, financed before deciding to go digital. He shot the film for $30,000 and premiered it within a year of writing the script.

Similarly, l.a.-based Clay Eide financed his first feature Dead Dogs on a credit card for a us$75,000. ‘We opted for a smaller-scale film made with our own money as opposed to spending a year looking for financing,’ explains Eide.

cbc’s head of movies and miniseries, Brian Freeman, stresses the importance of moving projects along. ‘The magic ingredient is momentum,’ says Freeman. ‘That’s what gets films made. If you wait for all the conditions to be right, you may never make your movie.’

While digital technology has drastically reduced the cost of getting films made, getting them onscreen is another matter. Distribution woes came up time and again among the filmmakers gathered in Edmonton, who bemoan the fact that their films receive a token opening in a couple of markets and show for a week.

Edmontonians pointed out many acclaimed Canadian films such as Jeremy Podeswa’s The Five Senses never reach their city. They voiced frustration over what they view as a lack of marketing effort and commitment to Canadian films by distributors and exhibitors.

For example, Malcolm Ingram says his Tail Lights Fade, distributed by Motion International, opened on 15 screens in Canada ‘with no advance press’ and closed after a week. He says he felt very alienated from the marketing and promotion of his own film.

Greg Klymkiw, producer of Guy Maddin’s film Careful, watched the film premier to critical acclaim and a sold-out house at the New York Film Festival, only to gross a mere $800 in its first weekend in Toronto and vanish after a week, despite great press.

Hazlett had a number of films caught up in the changing tide of Canadian distribution that affected release plans.

Suburbanators was to be released by Everest, but the company went belly up; Kitchen Party was released by Cineplex Odeon, which at the time was being absorbed by Alliance Atlantis; and just prior to the release of Bad Money, its distributor, Red Sky, was in the midst of corporate changes. The film opened for a short run in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg, but was not released in markets further east.

On a more positive note, Minds Eye Pictures’ Kevin DeWalt discussed his experiences with Alliance Atlantis on Something More, Rob King’s first feature. Norstar Releasing was to distribute, but aac acquired the film when it took over Norstar. aac did test screenings and gave Minds Eye additional money to produce a soundtrack and change the title. After a short theatrical release, the film has made more than $500,000 in video sales.

Odeon Films president Bryan Gliserman points out that with the high volume of films vying for screens, distributors’ hands are often tied by exhibitors who quickly push out films with low box office to make room for the new product.

Canada’s distribution dilemmas are wide-ranging and complex, and filmmakers need solutions outside the current infrastructure.

‘We have to find a way to take a giant step around that mess – the Canadian system,’ says Hazlett.

Self-distribution is one avenue. O’Mochain, for example, is booking his film into art houses throughout Dublin. When Klymkiw couldn’t find a distributor for his film Bubbles Galore, he booked it into theatres around the world. After 14 screenings, the cumulative gross was more than $12,000. But he says releasing a film takes a lot of time and energy that should be spent actually making films.

Ambrose Roche of Toronto-based Continuities Productions is offering to do this work for filmmakers. His production company opened a distribution arm a year ago to release art-house pictures. ‘I go right to the filmmakers and split the returns with them equally,’ he explains.

Roche works individual theatres and will also do video releases, working with an independent video distributor.

cbc’s Freeman notes that tv broadcasters are becoming key stakeholders in Canadian films. ‘We are intruders on our own distribution system. The reality is Canadian films are screened in three major cities and there just isn’t the marketing campaign to push them to small-town Canada. But audiences across the country can view these these films on tv. Broadcasters are the parallel distribution system,’ he says.’

Freeman remains positive about the future of Canadian filmmaking. ‘By sustaining a high volume of low-budget films, by creating a critical mass of films and a multiplicity of voices, interest in Canadian films will increase,’ he says.