Robin Smith lightheartedly, and perhaps surprisingly, draws on a 14th century epic poem to explain his role in the Canadian distribution landscape.

He paints himself a Virgil-like guide, who takes newbie filmmakers on a walking tour of the mysteries, the horrors and the glories of the distribution scene – as the Roman poet did for Dante in the Inferno.

‘I’m the Virgil to their Dante,’ he analogizes.

Smith has carved a unique niche for himself in Canada’s crowded distribution market, championing obscure specialty titles through his one-man outfit KinoSmith, which he runs out of his Toronto home.

The 17-year industry vet, who jokes that he has worked at nearly all the Canuck distributors alphabetically during his career – including Alliance Atlantis, Capri Releasing, Lions Gate Films and Seville Pictures – fancies himself a distribution broker, rather than a traditional distributor, and believes the distinction has separated him from the pack.

‘One of the problems I’ve always had with our industry is the mystery around it,’ Smith begins. ‘There’s always been a separation between the knowledge base of how the marketplace works with producers, and the knowledge base with distributors on how production works.’

The unobtrusive Smith knows from experience that up-and-coming filmmakers learn little about the real business of distribution at film school, having gone through the program himself at York University. ‘Simple things like how do you get trailers into movie theaters, how do you work publicity, what are the mechanisms and exclusivities [that] the broadcaster wants,’ he explains, adding that it’s about ‘opening doors’ to less experienced producers.

With that mindset, Smith founded KinoSmith in early 2007 during a tumultuous time in the industry that saw the arrival of Maximum Films and E1 Entertainment (the former now falls under E1), while a takeover at Alliance Atlantis had its Motion Picture Distribution business spin off into Alliance Films.

‘The biggest challenge is just being a small player in a big pond,’ Smith offers, as he muses over his experiences with KinoSmith the last few years and his breakthrough in 2008 with the box-office hit Up the Yangtze. He speaks fondly of the film, and says it was a ‘no-brainer’ to get involved with Yung Chang’s directorial debut, which he co-released with its Montreal-based producer EyeSteelFilm.

‘The movie had beautiful human stories and, cinematically, it was gorgeous… I knew it would look fantastic on the big screen,’ recalls Smith, who worked out a rollout release strategy with EyeSteel that would see KinoSmith screen the documentary as much as possible, prior to its release.

‘Advance screenings are tricky situations… most traditional distributors don’t like them because they feel like they’re giving too much away. But if you have a strong word-of-mouth movie, it’s foolish not to screen it in advance, especially if you don’t have a large budget to advertise it,’ Smith contends.

Yangtze became the third-highest grossing Canadian-made documentary of all time in Canada (after The Corporation and Sharkwater) last year with a box-office take of $640,000.

‘I think what [Smith] was able to do with Up the Yangtze was to have his thumb on the pulse of the audience very early on,’ says EyeSteel producer Mila Aung-Thwin, who praises Smith’s dedication and savvy. ‘Together with Robin, we were able to take a film that no other distributor wanted to touch, and turn it into one of the biggest success stories of the year… filmmakers need distributors like [KinoSmith] to sustain an industry where good work is given the chance in the marketplace,’ he adds.

Smith has also had success steering indie foreign titles such as Dutch drama Ten Canoes, which grossed over $100,000 in 2007 and accounted for 35% of the North American gross; and the recently released Hindi-language drama The Pool, with over $110,000 at the Canuck box office. Among his Canadian successes are the 2008 doc Saving Luna ($100,000), and the recent release Mothers & Daughters, which at press time had nearly $30,000 on four screens after opening May 8.

The distributor says he has to feel ’emotionally connected’ to a film and always looks for marketability when contemplating a pickup. ‘Filmmakers always come up to me and say, ‘What are you looking for?’ I always tell them what I’m not interested in… which would be dysfunctional family dramas and teenage romcoms,’ Smith observes, noting that most of his product is very niche.

He explains that with KinoSmith he’s interested in filling the gap where Mongrel Media, now a bigger distributor, used to be.

Adds Smith: ‘It made sense, especially when 68% of our country is 35-plus. A lot of people are moving outside of urban areas to smaller communities like Kelowna or Orangeville, where there’s still an appetite for upscale product.’

Et Cetera…

• Born in Toronto
• Originally studied to be a marine biologist
• Plays on industry hockey team the Rubes
• Is a video-game nut
• Loves food, especially Indian cuisine
• Teaches film distribution and marketing courses at Ryerson University
• Lists Lost, and the PBS science series Nova among his favorite TV programs