Montreal-based distributor Cinema Libre officially closed its doors on Nov. 15. The not-for-profit organization, formed 25 years ago to provide a distribution option for documentary, short and independent filmmakers, had more than 1,000 titles in its library, the rights to which have been returned to the filmmakers.

‘The closure leaves a large number of independent productions out in the ditch,’ admits Paul Lapointe, who sat on CL’s board of directors. For example, Bruce McDonald’s The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess, which screened at the Toronto, Vancouver and Atlantic film festivals this fall, was to be distributed through CL. While the distrib’s library was predominantly documentary, it had begun to branch out into feature films in recent years, a move that seems to have contributed to its closure.

‘With fiction, the problem is that the kind of gamble you’re taking financially on each individual film can have more of a dramatic impact on the cash flow of the organization and can create a crisis very quickly,’ says Lapointe.

Another recent feature distributed through CL was The Delicate Art of Parking. ‘Because the organization was not well known outside of Quebec, [CL] had to pay upfront for a number of promotion services and theaters, which created a cash-flow problem that propelled it even further into crisis,’ says Lapointe, explaining that although the mocumentary was not to blame for CL’s demise, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Lapointe says the board had been working to restructure the organization for the last year and a half and had planned to implement new strategies in September. By that time, however, it became clear the financial situation of CL was too far-gone for restructuring to have an effect. The board unsuccessfully attempted to secure emergency funds from SODEC and Telefilm Canada to save the distributor.

According to Lapointe, CL’s closure is indicative of a systemic funding crisis resulting from Telefilm’s move toward more market-driven distribution, and he points to cutbacks at Montreal production/distribution company La Fete and distributor Film Tonic, which closed its doors earlier this year, as indications that smaller distributors are struggling to survive in the current market.

Ted East, president of the Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters, however, points to numerous cuts to Telefilm’s Feature Film Distribution Fund, established in 1988, as a contributing factor behind why CL and other smaller distributors may have run into troubles in recent years.

‘The amount of money that’s been made available to distributors has decreased over the years, as has the flexibility that that money can be used for,’ says East. ‘The distribution fund was cut in a much higher proportion to Telelfilm’s other programs, and it was not reinstated to its previous amount when the new feature money was announced. Increasingly, the recoupment rate of the fund has become less and less favorable to distributors.’