Montreal: More than 50 Montreal filmmakers and screenwriters have banded together to create a new independent distribution company.

Launched this fall, Les Films du 3 Mars is designed to pick up where boutique distrib Cinema Libre, which folded in November of last year after 25 years, left off.

‘The demise of Cinema Libre left a terrible void for local filmmakers,’ says Micheline Raymond, F3M’s first director general. ‘There aren’t a lot of distributors who can necessarily handle independent or experimental films. These films might not make millions, but they are nonetheless very important.’

F3M’s board of directors is a who’s who of Montreal’s indie film scene, including Denis Langlois (Amnesia), Pascale Ferland (L’Arbre aux branches coupées), Katherine Jerkovic (Platinum Farewell) and Malcolm Guy (Les Navires de la honte).

Raymond notes that Cinema Libre found itself in financial trouble after overextending – something F3M will avoid by carefully managing its resources.

The case for creating F3M was so strong that both the Canada Council for the Arts and its Quebec counterpart rushed to grant the fledgling organization funding for its launch.

‘Normally, there is a waiting period of two years for this funding,’ says Raymond, ‘but they could see that Cinema Libre’s collapse had left a hole in the cultural milieu, so they gave us funding right away.’

As part of its strategy to operate more efficiently, Raymond says F3M will distribute a higher proportion of documentaries. ‘In general, distribution of documentaries is not as costly,’ she adds. Raymond has had marketing and distribution experience at Télé-Québec and TQS.

As well, Raymond says F3M will not be as involved with development and preproduction as Cinema Libre was. She points out that simply having a distributor lined up means the difference between getting funding from government organizations Telefilm Canada and SODEC.

The collapse of Cinema Libre left a number of films with release dates in the lurch, including The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess by Bruce McDonald, as well as hundreds of films left in its library. (Each was handed back to the filmmakers.)

F3M has not yet released a film and will announce its initial titles by the new year.