Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC)

1967–Present
Location

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Description

Established in 1967, CFMDC is a not-for-profit, non-commercial media arts distributor. We specialize in independent, artist-made work on film and video, including works from historically underrepresented communities. CFMDC advocates for a holistic understanding of production, distribution and exhibition that prioritizes artist rights, accessibility and the creation of new audiences through education and critical thinking. We have one of the most important collections of artist-made moving image on film in Canada that includes 16mm, 35mm and (s)8mm films. Through a unique and successful national and international distribution service, CFMDC's collection is available for preview, rental or sale for the purposes of research, exhibition, screening, and broadcast as well as for institutional and private acquisition. We distribute through physical media and online streaming; on multiple formats including celluloid, video, digital, and DCP.

Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC). “About Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre.” Accessed August 4, 2023. https://www.cfmdc.org/about.
Works in catalogue
  • A person looking at something in their left palm while mid sentence. They are holding a cigarette in their right hand. They have light skin and short curly dark brown hair. They have a gold cross necklace around their neck, wearing a yellow-and-black animal print top with a deep v-neck. The background is a crowded restaurant with a bunch of people sitting at various tables and waiters in motion.

    Hookers on Davie

    film/video, 1984

    Janis Cole and Holly Dale made their feature length documentary about sex work in Vancouver where cis women worked with transgender women, transvestites and males in what once once known as the prostitution capitol of Canada. A court injunction and the work of Concerned Residents of the West End (CROWE) moved the hookers out of the area and into more dangerous non-residential neighbourhoods in the summer of 1984.

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    California Is an Island

    film/video, 2009

    Based on archival map research, the naming and mapping of California and the flawed rhetoric of Hernando Cortez; the film follows Cortes' last attempt at conquest in the so-called New World using a feminist queer anti-colonial lens.

  • A person looks into the camera shirtless with short black hair and dark purple red lipstick. They are holding a yamaka over their left eye and have yellow nail polish. They have a white and black tallit resting on the back of their head and going down on their shoulders.

    Bubby & Them

    film/video, 2017

    Bubby & Them is a docufictional short video about the relationship between two liminal members of the Lower East Side Orthodox Jewish community: Je’Jae, a genderqueer college student, and Razi, their adoptive grandmother. The movie examines how the two femmes support each other in their struggles, share space, and create a chosen family.

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    The Gold Fish Casino

    film/video, 2017

    A queer musical that tells the story of a plucky Salmon forced by a lack of water to gamble her eggs to get upstream. In her struggle, she encounters a Water Nymph with a murky past in the Water Wars dealing dirty cards, a River that has lost her way, and an ancient Crocodile stuck playing host to the casino's vaudeville numbers performed by the bumbling Army Chorus of Engineers. Will the Salmon and her newfound allies rise up? Or will it all go down the drain? This film by Sarolta Vay exemplifies a commitment to social justice and to radical forms of cultural intervention. San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. “Friday, November 10 at 8pm,” 2017. https://sftff.org/friday-november-10-at-8pm/.

  • A person is posing in front of a pink background. They have dark brown skin, really long lashes, black hair in a beehive bun style, and big dangly earrings. They have a black long sleeve turtle neck and a pink corset with a long blue feather skirt. The title of the show is above in silver glitter "Pose".

    Pose

    TV series, 2018

    While New York witnesses the evolution of the ball culture and the rise of the Trump-era, an LGBTQ ball fixture, Blanca, starts her own house and turns mother to a gifted dancer and a sex worker.

  • Two people stand really close together facing each other and the background is blurred out white street lamps. The person on the left has tan skin, shoulder length curly hair, wearing hoop earrings and a denim jacket. The person on the right has tan skin, short brown hair with the sides faded, wearing a flannel t shirt.

    To Be With You

    film/video, 2019

    Alex is only in L.A. for 24 hours to reclaim their father’s ashes but, along the way, they find an old love, a beauty in the city, and a final connection to the past.