MONTREAL — Over the weekend friends and family remembered Claude Forget, renowned supporter of Quebec independent film and former director of distribution company Cinema Libre. Forget died Aug. 17 in Sainte-Julienne, QC, the village of his birth, succumbing to cancer-related complications. He was 57.

‘He was a man of heart who took on the cause of independent cinema when there was no one else to do it. He supported people who took risks to create. He wasn’t interested in commercial film,’ recalls Prix Jutra-winning docmaker Sylvie Groulx (La classe de madame Lise), who worked with Cinema Libre from 1978 to 1988. ‘He had a vision. For him, film was a form of cultural expression. He distributed films to help us think and understand the world.’

Cinema Libre was founded in the late 1970s to distribute non-commercial independent film. Forget took over the struggling organization in the 1980s and stayed there until it closed in 2004. At the time, industry observers blamed Cinema Libre’s demise on a systemic funding crisis resulting from Telefilm Canada’s move toward more market-driven distribution, and cuts to its Feature Film Distribution Fund.

‘He did a huge amount of work. He worked so hard and invested so much of his time. He was very generous. He wanted to help everyone. When filmmakers brought their films in, he had a hard time saying no,’ says Groulx.

‘His passion for film permeated the atmosphere of Cinema Libre, along with the smell of his cigarettes,’ recalls Claude Ouelett, who worked with Forget at Cinema Libre and is now the coordinator of international sales at Radio-Canada. ‘He had an immense curiosity. He just knew so much about independent film.’

In the 1970s, Forget worked in Africa. He was also head of Vidéographe and Main Film.

In January 2005, Forget moved to rural Quebec to coordinate the Paraloeil program, which specializes in the production and distribution of independent film and video.

On Sept. 13, the Cinémathèque québécoise will honor his memory with a special soiree.