The Brooklyn Papers / Greg Mango

Reel life heroes: KimStim film, video and DVD distribution company partners Ian Stimley and Mika Kimoto in their Park Slope home-office where they help garner exposure for promising filmmakers and great foreign films.

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Park Slope indie distribution company KimStim can be a foreign filmmaker’s last hope before fading - along with the cinematic fruits of his labor - into the black hole of obscurity.

Borough Park native Ian Stimley, the 39-year-old co-founder of the film, video and DVD distributor sees a definite need for his company, whose stated mission is "to release overlooked, under-appreciated masterworks of world cinema to home video and theaters."

Founded in 1999, KimStim (he’s "Stim," and his wife, Mika Kimoto is "Kim") has championed films that have fallen through the cracks, films that Stimley and Kimoto feel deserve a chance to be seen by a wider audience.

Stimley’s background makes him perfect for the job.

"I grew up in a film household - my father worked for MGM," he told GO Brooklyn. "I also worked for film companies where I had my own interests, my own tastes. I like films that are tough sells theatrically and might only appear on video."

Stimley, who currently works with Zeitgeist Films, and Kimoto "share similar tastes for films," he explained. "We try to agree on everything we do."

Their latest agreement is on three recent DVD releases: 1999’s "The Other" and 1994’s "The Emigrant" both by Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, and 2000’s "Human Resources," the debut film by French director Laurent Cantet, whose second feature, 2001’s "Time Out," is a masterpiece.

Chahine, whose movies have rarely been seen outside of festivals (his work occasionally surfaces at the New York Film Festival) and retrospectives, has his own singular, hybrid style incorporating melodrama, documentary techniques and even musical comedy. "The Other" is a tragic love story played out against the backdrop of religious fanaticism, and "The Emigrant" is a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph from an Egyptian perspective.

"These were strong festival films that have never had a proper theatrical release," Stimley explained. "Chahine’s films have never caught on here, even though he’s very popular [internationally]. I had never heard of him until a couple of years ago when I saw ’The Other,’ which I really liked.

Why did KimStim choose these particular Chahine titles out of the many the prolific director has made?

"These were ones we could find that were available: sometimes getting them is difficult, but we were able to make deals for these two," he said, sounding apologetic for the discs’ less-than-stellar visual quality.

"We weren’t given access to great master tapes," said Stimley. "Good materials are often difficult to get for certain films in general, since no one had the foresight to keep a proper, high-quality, pristine print. Going back to the original film elements would be time-consuming, expensive work for a small company, unfortunately."

As for "Human Resources," Stimley worked backwards after seeing - and being blown away by - "Time Out."

"When we saw Cantet’s first film was available, it was a no-brainer: we didn’t even see it before acquiring it," said Stimley. "He’s a director who will get even better over time. The company that released ’Human Resources’ theatrically went bankrupt, and we were able to pick it up for DVD."

Stimley acknowledges that the DVD seems to be of lesser visual quality, but that’s because Cantet shot "Human Resources" on grainy film stock: partly for financial, but also artistic, considerations, in order to give an ultra-realistic feel to his story of ordinary factory workers caught up in changing times.

"The quality of the film stock is lower than what people are used to seeing," he said. "I’m a little worried about [critical response], since some reviews have already called us on it, unfairly I think."

Cantet is a typical KimStim acquisition: a director who they feel has even more potential.

"We like to see who will make a potentially good director in the future," he said, adding, "Of course, it’s difficult to get ’name’ directors since we’re a small company."

Even so, KimStim has an exciting film lineup coming to DVD. Two documentaries by Austrian director Ulrich Seidl - who recently had a BAMCinematek retrospective - are slated to be released later this year ("Animal Love" and "Models"), as is "The Mirror," by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, and "Seventeen Years," by Zhang Yuan, which won several awards at the 1999 Venice Film Festival.

"We’re proud of all these films, and we believe in them," said Stimley. "We can’t get top films, but some do fall through the cracks and aren’t seen after a festival showing. So we give them a second chance."

Stimley’s enthusiasm for underdog films is equal to his affection for Brooklyn.

"I have strong Brooklyn connections: I was born in the Borough Park area, and I’ve lived here [in Park Slope] for the past seven years," he said. "I’m very pro-Brooklyn. We’re hoping to get a new office somewhere, but we do want to stay in Brooklyn. There used to be a need to be in Manhattan or L.A. to be in this business, but not anymore."

KimStim-distributed DVDs are available at The Reel Life Video stores in Williamsburg [209 Bedford Ave. at North Fifth Street; (718) 302-9747] and Park Slope [1111 Eighth Ave. at 11th Street; (718) 965-9775], as well as Best Buy locations, and on the Web at www.amazon.com. Visit www.kimstim.com for more information.

©2004 Community Newspaper Group