7/30/2019 401 Richmond Update Tenant Profile_Canadian FIlmmakers Distribution Centre

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CANADIAN FILMMAKERS DISTRIBUTION CENTRE

(CFMDC) STUDIO 119

TENANT PROFILE

Every day independent Canadian experimental, short, anddocumentary films are making their way into programmingfor festivals like Images (Studio 448) and the TorontoInternational Film Festival (TIFF), and onto screens atinternational biennales or Queen Street West galleries.How does this happen? Well in some cases its thedirect result of the Canadian Filmmakers DistributionCentre (CFMDC, Studio 119) doing its job. A job it has

been dedicated to doing for forty-two years now . CFMDCrepresents over 750 filmmaker members who keeptheir artistic collections with the centre and rely on itswell-established relationships to get their work in frontof audiences. This is not the only way that films make itto the screen, but it can be a vit al connection for manyfilmmakers to exhibition opportunities. CFMDCExecutive Director Lauren Howes describes theprocess as being community based there is aninterconnected web of artists and exhibitors withCFMDC acting as a facilitator. They are all reliant oneach other to make it come together, or in Laurens

words: our survival depends on their survival.

The primary exhibitors for the 2700 films in CFMDCscatalogue are festivals, galleries, and educationalinstitutions. CFMDC is definitely in a specialty niche,there is no question about that, but we always havebeen. I think our specialization in experiment al, short, anddocumentary film is the strength of the organization.Operating as a non-profit, the C FMDC is reliant onarts funding from the Canada Council and TrilliumFoundation among others to keep things running. The

centre charges distribution fees and deals almostexclusively with paying clients, but seventy percent ofwhat is charged goes directly to the artist. This is afoundational part of how the centre does its businessand while it means that they are not generating revenue,it ensures that the f ilmmakers are being paid fairly fortheir work. New filmmakers and films come to CFMDCregularlyalmost eighty percent of new work theyreceive is unsolicited. They look at everything thatcomes in and rarely deny adding it to their cat alogue.Lauren and her team work carefully to create an appro-priate distribution plan for eac h individual film.

Given the timing of our interview with Lauren, we couldntignore the current, lets call it economic situation, and

it did come up in convers ation. There was some knockingon wood and hesitation to say that things were ok ayso far, but it does seem that the centre will weather thestorm. In reality, this is not the first financial downturnthey have made it through and Lauren is convincedthat their relevancy as an organization will keep themafloat. Lauren feels that if the arts and artists wereproperly acknowledged as economic generators, this

battle would be far easier. I would love to see the artsget the recognition it deserves relative to contributionto the economy as forestry or the auto industry does talk about a softer footprint. The arts arent gettingbailed out in the greater economic downturn.

Lauren readily admits that CFMDC is far behind thetechnological curve and part of their recent strategicplan is to upgrade their systems and t ake a lot of whatthey do online. Lauren imagines the website functioningas a really effective portal to the collection and seessocial networking models as a template for ways that the

site could open up the membership to new opportunities.At the same time CFMDC is balancing the convenienceand access provided by digitizing work in their collectionwith a strong belief in the need to preserve celluloid,the filmmakers who stand behind it as their preferredmedium, and encouraging festivals to continue to screenin this format.

The lightning speed of the digit al shift has causedsome significant changes, such as 401 neighboursGallery 44 (Studio 120) having one of the only dark-

rooms left in the city for processing film. Filmmakinghas not been immune to this shift, in large part becauseit is so much cheaper to produce work digit ally. ButLauren sees celluloid holding strong. Toronto has areally active film community. Celluloid has become aspecialty but remains a c hosen canvas for many artists.Its alive and well in Toronto but its dependent on filmstock, and independent labs being available. T here arealso great resources like the Liason of IndependentFilmmakers (LIFT) who provide equipment and theImages Festival that has a strong mandate aroundshowing work on 16mm that make the scene pretty

vibrant. Were lucky that Toronto has become a filmepicentre, which is now unique in the world.www.cfmdc.org

Left to right: CFMDC Executive Director Lauren Howes, Technician Rebecca Gruihn, Educational Development and Outreach

Larissa Fan, Membership Coordinator Genne Speers, and Technician Intern Eva Kolzce.