The National Film Board gets back into the theatrical distribution game this month with the Toronto release of The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali. The feature doc, about the 1966 bout between local boxer George Chuvalo and Muhammad Ali, opens Oct. 31 at Canada Square Cinemas and is slated to roll out through the fall to a total of 10 or 12 screens, backed by a ‘strong’ promo push.

The board has recently become more active in distribution and is following the lead of other docs – Bowling for Columbine, Spellbound, Winged Migration, et al – that have scored big at the box office in the past year, says Tom Perlmutter, director of the board’s English program. The NFB has dabbled in distribution before, with films including Sprits of Havana and Project Grizzly.

‘The board is committed to theatrical feature docs,’ says Perlmutter, himself a former doc maker at Toronto’s Barna-Alper and CineNova Productions. ‘We’ll be here for some time to come.’

The Last Round campaign will include ads in The Globe and Mail and radio spots. ‘The key to these films is niche marketing, finding a core audience and building on it,’ says Perlmutter.

The Last Round will play at both commercial and rep theaters, and continues to play at fests and small NFB screenings around the country. Canada Square is an arty first-run Famous Players theater located in Toronto’s busy Yonge and Eglinton neighborhood.

The board later this year will also release The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, which it coproduced with director Ann Marie Fleming. If all goes well, Perlmutter expects to release three to six films per year.

-www.nfb.ca