Bankruptcy court sells off remaining Filmex assets.

Bankruptcy court sells off remaining Filmex assets

Filmex Inc. quietly faded to black this month, ending its 19-year struggle to establish a major film festival in Los Angeles. Filmex was very much in the red when it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation this month, listing debts of $224,585 and assets of $16,506.

"The bankruptcy finally puts to sleep what happened years ago, which was the effective end of the festival," said Larry S. Scherzer, treasurer of Filmex.

Originally the brainchild of Los Angeles County Museum administrator Philip Chamberlin and UCLA programmer Gary Essert, Filmex was intended to be a festival that overlapped with the Academy Awards, punctuating Los Angeles' standing as a bastion of culture.

Aided by famed director George Cukor, Chamberlin and Essert produced well-attended and lively Filmex festivals beginning in 1971 and through the early 1980s. But administrative squabbles and budget woes stopped Filmex in its tracks, Essert said. In 1985, the last Filmex festival was staged.

"Filmex's failure was due to the mismanagement and greed by some of the people in charge," said Essert, now the artistic director of the American Cinematheque.

Essert left Filmex in 1983, when attendance was "between 180,000 and 200,000," he said. In the three years after his departure, Filmex logged nearly all of the debt that eventually squashed it, he said. Adding another administrator and other operating expenses to the exposition's budget led to its demise, he said.

Non-profit Filmex's debt reached a high of about $300,000 in 1986, according to Bill Magee, president. He declined to comment on the bankruptcy.

While the curtain has fallen on Filmex, it is not the end of major film festivals in Los Angeles. In 1986, the American Film Institute paid Filmex an undisclosed sum to relinquish its date on the international film festival calendar. Since then, AFI has conducted its AFI/LA FilmFest each April "in the same spirit as the Filmex festivals," according to Ken Wlaschin, director of exposition for Washington-based AFI. As part of its overall strategy to build a network of regional festivals across the United States, AFI has added a European film festival and a comedy festival to its calendar in recent years.

Essert, for one, said that the power and popularity that Filmex enjoyed in its heyday will probably not be replicated.

"Festivals in the U.S. have become lack-luster and their purpose has reached an ebb," said Essert. "With the advent of videocassettes, the availability of foreign and offbeat films has increased. Also, most of the festivals just aren't festive any longer."

It took four years for Filmex to file for bankruptcy because its directors and partners have been toiling to retire its debt. Before dissolving, Filmex partners reduced the debt from about $300,000 to $224,000.

Even with a list of partners that included Jerry Weintraub, chairman and chief executive officer of Weintraub Entertainment Group Inc., Jonathan Goodson, vice president of Mark Goodson Production, Richard S. Rosenzweig, executive vice president of Playboy Enterprises Inc., Peter Morton, owner of the Hard Rock Cafe, and actor Jack Nicholson, bailout money was not easy to raise. Fundraisers were planned in 1986 but never held. Eventually, each of the 17 trustees had to shell out $5,000 to help extinguish debt, a Filmex source said.

Ninety-three unsecured creditors were left unpaid by Filmex's Chapter 7 filing, including Los Angeles-based Atlantic Richfield Co., which had loaned Filmex $100,000, and New York-based Chemical Banking Corp., which had loaned Filmex $43,000. The rest of the debt is primarily fees from printing companies and small Hollywood production houses. The bankruptcy filing was handled by Arco counsel, who did not return telephone calls.

Filmex's remaining assets were primarily movie posters and festival memorabilia, according to court documents.