Paris-basedsales outfit Celluloid Dreams is stirring up buyers' interest in artist MatthewBarney's film Drawing Restraint 9, an experimental epic set aboard a Japanese whaling ship.

Deals havealready been concluded with Spain (Bistel) and Australia (Accent), andCelluloid Dreams is in negotiations with France, Germany, Greece, Russia, Italyand Japan. Cinetic Media holds North American rights to the film.

DrawingRestraint premieredat the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, this summerprior to festival screenings in Venice and Toronto.

"Theuniqueness of Matthew Barney's work provides an exciting and originalopportunity for both distributors and the audience," Celluloid Dreams'Hengameh Panahi commented. "What we saw illustrated with the release ofBarney's Cremaster Cycle is that there is an audience for challenging works of quality asthe market place is merely offering formatted films. On the back of thegroundwork and awareness built by the gallery shows we can use this platform toreach the cinema going audience offering them the cinematic experience of theartist's work."

An added hookfor potential buyers, Panahi suggested, is the presence of pop diva Bjork, whonot only appears in DR9 but wrote its "folktronic" soundtrack.

Only theatricalrights to DR9 are available. Barney's art work is represented by the BarbaraGladstone Gallery in New York. As he acknowledged to the press in Venice, he issometimes caught between the worlds of fine art and commercial filmmaking.

"The waythis (filmmaking) all started for me was to make video installations and tosell them in an edition of three or six the way you would a sculpture,"Barney stated. "As I kept making video works that became more linear andwere shown in cinemas, I kept selling them the same way. That gives me ultimatefreedom, but the problem is I can't sell them as a limited edition and thensell them as an unlimited edition. I want them (my films) to be more accessiblebut at the same time I want my freedom."

Celluloid Dreamsalso has international rights on the documentary on Barney by Alison Chernickcalled "The Cosmology of Matthew Barney".