Fonds - Midi Onodera Fonds

Midi Onodera (b. (October 26 1961) is a third generation Japanese-Canadian filmmaker who has been directing, producing, and writing films for over thirty years. Her work includes short and feature length films and videos, and has been exhibited both in Canada and internationally. Born in Toronto, Midi then attended the Ontario College of Art and Design and graduated with an AOCA certificate (1983). She later went back to the college and received a BFA in 2011. Midi was able to enter the Toronto art community not only as a student at OCAD but also as the Equipment Coordinator at the Funnel, a prominent centre for exhibition, distribution and production of experimental films from 1977-1989. She went onto to work in the Canadian film industry as a camera assistant and worked with award-winning Cinematographers, Rene Ohashi and Marc Champion.

Midi has also been a media consultant, director, and producer for almost twenty years at MAC Cosmetics and she founded Daruma Pictures Inc. in 1990. Her works feature various formats ranging from 8 & 16mm film to digital video, and digital toy formats such as modified Nintendo Game Boy Camera, Intel Mattel computer microscope, and the Tyco and Trendmasters video cameras. Midi’s films have been critically recognized and have been included in numerous screenings such as the Toronto International Film Festival; the Berlin International Film Festival; the Rotterdam International Film Festival and a number of screenings at Lesbian & Gay Film Festivals around the world. Her works address individual, collective, national and transnational identities and she takes on issues such as race and gender. A predominant theme in many of Midi’s work highlights a personal diaristic narrative with a focus on the everyday. Midi’s films have won numerous awards such as Best Feature Film: Audience Award for Skin Deep in 1995 at the Hamburg International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and her Documentary Film The Displaced View was nominated for Best Documentary in 1989 at the Gemini Awards. More recently Midi’s work was celebrated and honored at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2011 with the DVD set Thirty Years: The Moving Image Art of Midi Onodera.