Vancouver: As the local industry prepares for the 15th annual Vancouver International Film Festival Oct. 4-20, the embryonic regional distribution industry is gathering little momentum and distribution remains the weakest link in the local filmmaking equation. Clearly the $1,000 cup of coffee is as important as it ever was and the price of java is going up.

And since most foreign or Toronto-based distributors consider the Vancouver film festival more of a promotional exercise than an acquisition opportunity, they don’t attend the event with their wallets packed. Consequently, the only option for most b.c. filmmakers is to go east to lunch with the establishment, or make their films on the fly and hope for a windfall later.

Sometimes it works out in a big way. Lynne Stopkewich’s Kissed, a darling of the Toronto International Film Festival, overcame the specter of necrophilia and a mini-budget to sell the world in the midst of a bidding war.

‘We closed the world in a day,’ said Stopkewich from the Independent Film Market in New York. ‘It was crazy.’

Says coproducer Dean English: ‘We’ll be able to come back and pay off our initial investors, people who might have thought that money had wings.’

Malofilm picked up the Canadian rights, Samuel Goldwyn bought the u.s. rights (through a coveted ‘gross’ deal that will provide a flow of revenue from u.s. theaters) and Lakeshore picked up foreign rights. The final distribution tally is being kept confidential, but the filmmakers confirm that they are already in the black.

Kissed also has the distinction of being, according to Wayne Sterloff, ceo at British Columbia Film, potentially the most profitable b.c. film in history, right out of the gate. It will likely outperform Mina Shum’s Double Happiness, he predicts.

Kissed opens the Canadian Images program at the Vancouver festival Oct. 4. But the Kissed experience is unusual for Vancouver-based films that in general have few distribution friends. It’s a tired story in b.c. and a plight that is becoming more dire, says Sterloff.

‘If you don’t have strong, proven support for the marketing (for example, distribution), Telefilm isn’t likely to be putting in any equity into your project,’ says Sterloff. So more filmmakers are left to fend for themselves.

‘The $1,000 cup of coffee is becoming even more important, and I’d say it’s more like a $2,000 cup with local producers having to travel to mip-tv, mipcom, Cannes, MIP-Asia and natpe to meet distributors.’

The Vancouver situation

One local company taking the small steps toward becoming a full-fledged distribution company is Burnaby-based TSC Film Distribution, started 18 months ago with $250,000 in funding from B.C. Film. It’s had mixed reviews, with Double Happiness generating a handsome return on one hand and capitalization struggles hindering its full-service distribution mandate on the other.

Says Gordon Guiry, president of tsc: ‘We’re a new company. We’ve had some growing pains. But we’re making acquisitions and major inroads.’

tsc has acquired about 350 hours of product including various television series, animated projects, feature films and libraries. Since its founding, the company has sparked development of 18 Canadian projects including Soapbox Productions’ features Suspect and Dead Serious and Force Four Productions’ animated feature Mr. Sewer Rat.

‘We’re pleased with our performance,’ says Guiry. ‘If there is any area that’s difficult it’s acquiring good-quality non-Canadian films.’

Foreign sales is a growth sector for the company, he adds.

The rest of the distribution market is thinly spread. Everest Releasing, while claiming Vancouver roots, makes its decisions out of Toronto. Local animators Gordon Stanfield and Chris Delaney are working to control distribution of their own homegrown series though in-house sales offices.

Water Street Releasing and Forefront Releasing are in the distribution game, but still lack the volume of product to create momentum. And B.C. Film lopped from its budget $600,000 earmarked for distribution development in the last round of provincial government cuts. There is little likelihood of budgets increasing next fiscal year.

Compared to Toronto which has Alliance, Astral, cfp, Norstar and other distribution enterprises, Vancouver still hasn’t discovered fire.

The key problem, says Sterloff, is the fragmentation of the Vancouver market. With boutique distributors clinging to their products, no one company has the volume to lure venture capital and therefore d’esn’t have the reinvestment capital available to help filmmakers.

‘We have to get producers of quality product to agree to stop competing (in distribution) and begin co-operating to sell into foreign markets,’ says Sterloff. ‘Together they have the assets that can attract investment, but we are still very much into our own business plans right now.’

The difficult distribution situation puts extra pressure on the Vancouver film festival to deliver qualified buyers to the proximity of Vancouver filmmakers, even though the festival is primarily an entertainment option.

‘(viff) is not a buying and selling market. It’s a cultural event first and foremost,’ says festival director Alan Franey, adding that the Trade Forum works to build awareness in the local industry. He maintains, however, that distributors attending the event are shopping as diligently as they are testing their films with festival g’ers. ‘We serve the smaller companies, the more independent distribution companies better,’ he explains.

A representative of the Swedish Film Institute bought 13 films in 1993 and is returning this year, and buyers from the bbc prefer the viff experience, says Franey. He describes viff as a ‘second-tier’ festival that puts special focus on East Asian, Canadian and documentary films.

‘People don’t know the Western Canadian market that well,’ says Franey, referring to the Canadian Images series that is featuring more films from the West than in recent years. ‘Even Toronto’s distributors don’t have a good grasp.’

Nancy Gerstman, a distributor with New York’s Zeitgeist Films, is attending Vancouver for the first time this fall with the documentary Paris is a Woman. ‘The smaller festival offers less competition,’ she says. ‘Vancouver has the potential to serve up something unusual and right for us.’

Andy Myers, a vp and gm at Toronto-based Norstar Entertainment, will bring several films including Swann to Vancouver. As a distributor who attends eight to 10 festivals a year, he describes viff as being on the low end of the totem pole.

‘I consider it a local press opportunity,’ he says, adding that he thinks the timing of the festival is ‘ill-advised’ because it conflicts with prime playing time and other festivals. He’s never bought a film here.

Vancouver’s distribution situation, meanwhile, d’esn’t rate as an issue with Myers. ‘I don’t give it much thought,’ he reflects. ‘I can’t conceive of a distribution business based in Vancouver,’ he says, ‘because the business is centralized here in Toronto.’