Past Programs

The Voices Have Always Talked Back
July 5 - Aug 3, 2023

For The Voices Have Always Talked Back, filmmakers Omolola Ajao and Nadine Valcin reached into the CFMDC archives to highlight the rich creative legacy of Black women filmmakers, pairing together works to form an inter-textual, inter-visual, and inter-generational relationship.  Experimental and diverse  practices are always prescient, conceiving of society, self and systems, as sites of necessary imagining and reimagining. The chosen works invite audiences to engage with temporal bonds that bridge the contemporary and the past, highlighting the rich, continued history of Black experimental film in Canada.

A touch of before, now and then
June 22-27, 2023

“A touch of before, now and then.” is the moment when briefly you glimpse a smell, a touch, a sound and an image which all together remind you of the taste of a memory. Is it an empty place, a lonesome one? Is it a crowded gathering or an abandoned village? Or maybe it’s the dunes that have taken over a myth? Exhibited in dialogue, three works by artists Mivan Makia, Qiuli Wu and soJin Chun exchange with one another to the sound of a breeze, of a process, of a cleanse and a reviving. 

Thinking Allowed
June 12-16, 2023

The Elastic Spaces SSHRC Connection funded project, Thinking Allowed, brings together a network of artists, curators, scientists, students and community members coming with expertise from different branches of knowledge – artistic, scientific and Indigenous – to address urgent issues around social justice and the environment.

Using both new and traditional practices, this group of interdisciplinary and intergenerational researchers work together towards delineating the intersections among the entangled problems of climate change, clear-cutting of old growth forests, human displacement, settler-colonialism and racism.

Artist Talk: Catrileo+Carrión Community for Archives of Resistance: Northern Migration
February 17, 2023

Artist talk accompanying Ngoymalayiñ online exhibiton by Catrileo+Carrión Community (CCC), curated by soJin Chun for the Archives of Resistance: Northern Migration program presented by CFMDC.

Ngoymalayiñ is a word in the Mapuche language of Mapuzugun which translates to “We do not forget.” This phrase responds to the perseverance of Indigenous communities in seeking justice despite the continued violence and denial of their rights by the Chilean government. The exhibition includes a series of nine short videos combining archives in mainstream media, video performances enacted in historically relevant sites, and audio bytes by members of the community. By experimenting with diverse visual strategies on video, the community narrates the nuance of Indigenous experiences as Two-Spirited artists in search of self-determination.

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Image: CCC Artist Talk

Talk: Archivo de la Memoria Trans
December 22, 2022 - January 25, 2023

We are pleased to present Family Album, showcasing the collection of photographs and narratives by Archivo de la Memoria Trans / Archive of Trans Memory (ATM) from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Archive contains a collection of more than 15,000 documents including family photographs, letters, newspaper articles, ID cards, and more. Join us for a talk by the collective.

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Image: Archivo de la Memoria Trans / Archive of Trans Memory

F+PPCM: The Frozen Slate
December 12 – 18, 2022

Strange road salt cartographies map the exterior of our winter boots, charting a path that fades into obscurity sometime after the city stops picking up leaf bags. The Frozen Slate is a program of eight 16mm film prints centered around the theme of winter, graciously lent to us by the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre and the Toronto Metropolitan University Teaching Collection. 

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Image: Endangered (1988), Barbara Hammer

LIFT x A/CA: Memory in Motion
October 27 – November 5, 2022

The eight films presented as part of Memory in Motion celebrate and reinterpret what is possible through non-fiction storytelling in the way they use archival footage in filmmaking. Although wildly different in approach and style, they explore the generative potential of artistic engagement with documentary heritage in contemporary filmmaking practices as a means of re-imagining our relationship to audiovisual history.

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Image: Origines (2022), Nadine Valcin

Now Transmitting...
May 1 - 31, 2022

Now Transmitting... an online media art programme with projects curated by Christina Battle, Samay Arcentales Cajas, Daniel McIntyre, Rolla Tahir, Esery Mondesir and James Knott.

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Image: Now Transmitting...

Cut Draw Fuck Kiss
December 9 - 18, 2021

The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) at Ryerson Student Chapter, and X University’s Film Preservation and Collections Management program (FPCM) present Cut Draw Fuck Kiss: Queer Animated Short Films

From the CFMDC Collection. In partnership with the 2021 Archive/Counter-Archive Symposium.

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Image: Cut Draw Fuck Kiss, 2021

Moments of Perception
December 1 - 7, 2021

Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre presents the launch of Goose Lane Editions book Moments of Perception Experimental Film in Canada: An illustrated history and guide book edited by Jim Shedden & Barbara Sternberg, with a major historical essay by Mike Zryd, and 125 profiles of key filmmakers by Stephen Broomer, Jim Shedden and Barbara Sternberg. Online Launch with a video presentation and discussions among the four authors and Canadian Brett Kashmere, Executive Director of Canyon Cinema in San Francisco.

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Image: Moments of Perception, 2021

Everything I touch I change
September 14 - October 12, 2021

The Independent Imaging Retreat (Film Farm) and Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC) present Everything I touch I change. New hand-made artisanal 16mm films on digital, by The Odeimin Runners Club - a Canadian collective of Ogimaakwe women artists: Adrian Kahgee, Rebeka Tabobonung, and Debbie Ebanks Schlums.

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Image: Odeimin Runners Club, 2021

INTO THE CITY
August 13 - 26, 2021

CFMDC is excited to present INTO THE CITY: Site Interventions in 80’s Toronto - film installation work by Rebecca Garrett, hosted for FREE on CFMDC.tv. Curated by Jorge Lozano and Alexandra Gelis and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. This program features documentation of Garrett's installations Project for a Divided House, Crazy Jane and the Torrent Men, and a moment of pure feeling.

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Image: Rebecca Garrett

Rebecca Garrett: SEARCH A Book Launch
August 13 - 26, 2021

A conversation about Rebecca Garrett's 1980’s installation  work between Rebecca Garrett, Jorge Lozano, and Dot Tuer. Moderated by  John Greyson. This book launch is part of the ConverSalon program INTO THE CITY: Site Interventions in 1980’s Toronto - film installation work by Rebecca Garrett. Curated by Jorge Lozano and Alexandra Gelis and supported by the Canada  Council for the Arts.

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Image: SEARCH, Rebecca Garrett

MONITOR 14
July 23 - August 6, 2021

SAVAC is thrilled to announce the final program of films and screening details for MONITOR 14: Drifting with the Summer Tides curated by Rasha Salti. This edition of MONITOR asks the viewer to float and travel towards different realities and lived experiences that the artists and filmmakers find necessary to mediate and communicate. The program articulates along four movements, Billowing Tide, Wave Crest, Breaker Tide, and Ebbing Wave, featuring films by: Meera Devidayal, Gian Spina, Valerio Rocco Orlando, Jayce Salloum, Sponge Gourd, Mairead McClean, Karan Shrestha, Ghita Skali, Dalia Al-Kury, Pathompon Mont Tesprateep, Inas Halabi and Taiki Sakpisit.

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Image: MONITOR 14, 2021

The Breadth Of
March 27 – April 30, 2021

The Breadth Of is  a free, public symposium that investigates and responds to the living  archive of the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. This critical inquiry uses the CFMDC collection as a launching point, where  we will engage, agitate and take stock, bring new ideas into  consideration, and react through creative and critical dialogue.

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Image: The Breadth Of, 2021