Jason St. Laurent, programming director for the festival, said alternate copies of the films arrived just half an hour before the screening. (CBC)

An Ottawa gay and lesbian film festival was left scrambling after copies of three films were delayed at the border for customs inspections.

"We were risking not having films to show at our festival, so you can imagine my fretting," said Jason St. Laurent, programming director for the Inside Out LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Film and Video Festival.

The Toronto-based group had scheduled screenings of I Can't Think Straight, Clapham Junction and Patrik, Age 1.5 for the third annual Ottawa-Gatineau edition of its festival this past weekend.

St. Laurent said he learned Thursday that the films were stuck at the border when he called the courier company to confirm the numbers used to track their delivery.

For two days, he tried unsuccessfully to contact the Canada Border Services Agency by phone.

In the end, the festival managed to get copies of the three films shipped over but decided to make the labelling less specific.

"So we just decided maybe not to make the gay and lesbian film festival part so obvious," St. Laurent said Monday. The films arrived half an hour before the screening.

St. Laurent would not speculate on why the original copies were flagged for inspection and said it may have been a random check.

Courier blamed by customs

On Monday, a spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency said it was up to the courier to turn the tapes over for inspection, and the courier only did so on Monday afternoon.

Brice Dellsperger, a French filmmaker showing one of his films at the Ottawa-Gatineau festival, said seizures of work destined for gay and lesbian festivals aren't unusual.

"It happens all the time. It's something that we constantly face."

Darien Duck, an employee at After Stonewall, a bookstore catering to the gay community, did not think the check was a random one.

"Of course it's censorship and they have no right," Duck said.