CANADIAN FILM DISTRIBUTORS ON THE PROWL

American indie filmmakers don't often think of their cousins to the north when it comes to exposure. Nevertheless, there is a huge potentiasl. The Film Circut, which is part of the Toronto Internati9nal Film Festival organization, places quite a few American independents in their more than 200 non-major urban market throughout the country. They even picked up the Burton sisters' MANNA FROM HEAVEN (in my opinion, a questionable offering). The brothers Haynes, Cam and Blair, who run The Film Circuit, seek American indies with the hopes that those who are developing circuiting analogues in the US wou;d bring more Canadian product to the States.

And there are two other small distributors. Ambrose Roche, of Decade Distribution, has handles Andrew Bujowski's FUNNY HA HA for sales in Canada, and, with his other hat is film programmer for North by Northeast, he is looking for music related film and video. The other is Colin Geddes, programmer of Midnight Madness for the Toronto Fest. Apart from running a matrial arts fest at the Royal Theatre, with the help of Boston-based Garo Nagagosian (sp), he also has a small distribution company, Substream Film. He does mostly service deals, but he also is effective in getting fims placed.

Part of my ability to deal with these people is that I've gotten to the point where almost 20% pf this year's BUFF will come from Canada. With almost 40% coming from Neww England, it makes thisgs rough for the rest of the world.