At last year?s TIFF, one of my great memories was seeing the world premiere of 51 Birch Street (left), Doug Block?s intensely personal film about his parents? marriage. Doug has been a longtime supporter of other filmmakers through his web site D-Word.com. So it was great to see him get the respect he deserves.

After the festival his producing team traveled a long, winding road to secure theatrical distribution. Now the film will debut in US theaters this October. Doug, his producer, sales agent and distributor will discuss ?what happens after TIFF? on a News & Views panel for industry pass holders on Sept 11 at 2:30 pm.

Here?s a little sampling of what went on behind the scenes?

DOUG BLOCK: Getting your film discovered at a major festival like Toronto can be a very serendipitous thing.  We finished 51 Birch Street less than a week before it premiered at Toronto last fall, and had very little time to prepare.  So when our first screening was scheduled six days into the festival, we thought we'd caught a bit of a break.

We had a sales agent, a publicist, and all the requisite promotional thingamajings -- posters, postcards, dvds, press kits, you name it.  And, it seemed, plenty of time to get word-of-mouth going.  So I went to panels and parties, schmoozed with friends and colleagues, saw lots of films, drank way too much, and generally had a great time, confident that somehow the mysterious forces of "buzz" were taking root somehow while I went about my business.

A couple of times a day, I went on the bank of computers in the press office, mostly to catch up on email, but also to check out the write-ups and reviews from the festival, some being written by the folks on either side of me even as I read.  Only to find not one word about 51 Birch Street anywhere.  For four long days... nothing.  Holy crap.

On the fifth day, I did the only thing I could do.  I went to a movie.  Not
a great one, either, but it took my mind off of things.  Afterwards, in the lobby, I ran into our publicist's local helper, Ryan Bruce Levey, and tried my best not to mention how much it was costing us to have exactly nothing written up about our wonderful new film.  Suddenly, his eyes darted away and he was off standing in the path of a man clearly in a hurry to leave.  "Have you written your documentary piece yet?" I heard Ryan ask.  "I'm about to write it now," the man replied.  When Ryan learned the journalist hadn't seen 51 Birch Street, he reached into his pocket and slipped the guy a dvd.  The whole exchange took maybe 30 seconds, as quick and smooth as any drug transaction.  Ryan returned with a cheshire cat smile. "That was Geoff Pevere of the Toronto Star. He's the best critic in Toronto!"

The next morning my producing partner, Lori Cheatle, called to say that the whole first half of the huge Star article focused on 51 Birch Street, which they labeled "The latest autobiographical doc sensation."  That was the first of many glowing reviews the film has received over the last year, and, believe me, none was sweeter or timelier.  Or more frighteningly serendipitous.