Midi Onodera

Midi Onodera grew up in an all-white mainly Jewish neighbourhood. Her grandmother came to Canada over 80 years ago, and speaks a rare combination of Japanese from the Meiji Period and English.{{Cite book|title=Feminism in the cinema|date=1995|publisher=Indiana University Press|others=Pietropaolo, Laura., Testaferri, Ada.|isbn=0585000743|location=Bloomington|oclc=42328418}} In her last years of college she was enrolled full time in independent study, which allowed her full access to equipment available at the school. She was inspired to start her career as a filmmaker after receiving a negative criticism from her professor in her final critique who stated that she was going against the traditions of painting by writing on the canvas and telling stories.

Onodera was born in Toronto, Ontario. Her work is short and feature-length films and videos, and is exhibited internationally. She created over 25 independent short films as well as a theatrical feature film and numerous short videos. Beginning in 2006, Midi created almost 500 short videos for various projects. She has published two essays on mobile cinema for Jump Cut.{{Cite web|url=http://cfccreates.com/alumni/1422|title=Midi Onodera|website=cfccreates.com|language=en|access-date=2017-09-02}}

Feminist film scholar Judith Mayne writes that Onodera's film Ten Cents a Dance (Parallax) (1985) "is less concerned with affirmative representations of lesbian experience than with explorations of the simultaneous ambivalence and pressure of lesbianism with regard to the polarities of agency and gender."{{Cite book|title=Feminisms in the Cinema|last=Mayne|first=Judith|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1995|editor-last=Pietropaolo|editor-first=Laura|location=Bloomington and Indianapolis|pages=199|chapter=A Parallex View of Lesbian Authorship|editor-last2=Testaferri|editor-first2=Ada}} Mayne notes that this film "almost caused a riot" at the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco.{{Cite journal|last=Mayne|first=Judith|date=2003|title=Interview with Midi Onodera|journal=Quarterly Review of Film and Video|volume=20|pages=53–62|doi=10.1080/10509208.2003.10555040|s2cid=191479607|via=T and F Online}}

Film scholar Catherine Russell has analyzed Onodera's "movie-a-day" project, which consisted of 365 short videos shot primarily on a "VcamNow" toy digital camera. Russell described the videos as being "like a surprise package or candy to unwrap, taste, and dissolve in your mouth--or in your hand as the case may be."{{Cite journal|last=Russell|first=Catherine|date=2007–2008|title=Mini-Cinema: A Digital Diary for iPod|journal=Cineaction|volume=73/74|pages=2–7|via=ProQuest}} She argues that "the project articulates another spatial and temporal world, which is that of digital media--a fragmentary, networked, omnipresent world in which the subject is infinitely disperse."

Performance artists Tanya Mars, called her "a thoughtful, daring filmmaker at a time when there was very little diversity in Canadian art".{{Cite web|url=http://najc.ca/midi-onodera-wins-governor-generals-award-in-visual-and-media-arts/|title=Midi Onodera wins Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts|date=2018-02-26|website=NAJC|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-26}}

Midi Onodera has also been a panellist, jury member, guest speaker, and lecturer for over 50 different film organisations, institutions and Universities around the world. Some of her most notable appearances are, a Guest Speaker for a Canadian Cinema class at Meiji Gaukin University in Tokyo, Japan in 2008, a jury member for the 2002 [https://torontoartscouncil.org/home Toronto Arts Council] and a panellist for various discussions for the Winnipeg Film Group in 2015.{{Cite web|url=http://midionodera.com/|title=Midi Onodera – Moving Image Artist|access-date=2019-03-26}}

She currently works for MAC Cosmetics as a media consultant, director and producer.{{Cite web|url=http://cfccreates.com/alumni/1422|title=Midi Onodera|website=cfccreates.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-26}}

• Untitled (1979)
• Contemplation (1979)
• Reality-Illusion (1979)
• A Film (1980)
• Filter Queen (1980)
• The Bird That Chirped On Bathurst (1981)
• Home Movies (1981)
• Food Trilogy (1981)
• What's For Lunch Charley?
• One Burger, Hold the Pickle
• Aprés Diner
• Endocrine (1982)
• One If By Land, Two If By Sea (1982)
• Idiot's Delight (1983)
• Home Was Never Like This (1983)
• Ville Quelle Ville (1984)
• Ten Cents A Dance (1985)
• Made In Japan (1985)
• After Car Crash, Woman Kills Two (1985)
• The Dead Zone (1985)
• The Displaced View (1988)
• Then/Now (1988)
• General Idea - Artist's Profile (1989)
• David Cronenberg - Artist's Profile (1990)
• Heartbreak Hoteru (1990)
• A Performance by Jack Smith (1992)
• Skin Deep (1995)
• the basement girl (2000)
• Slightseer (2001)
• Nobody Knows (2002)
• Alphagirls (2002)
• I have no memory of my direction (2005)
• 365 SHORT VIDEOS (2006)
• First Bloom, shortlisted at Filminute 2007 (2007)
• A Movie a Week (2009)
• The Coyotes Must See the Moon... (2017)
• Down the Drain (2017)
• NUTS (2017){{Cite web|url=http://www.vtape.org/artist?ai=857)|title=Artist {{!}} Vtape|website=www.vtape.org|access-date=2019-03-26}}

• List of female film and television directors
• List of lesbian filmmakers
• List of LGBT-related films directed by women

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://www.midionodera.com}}
• {{IMDb name|0648789}}
• [http://www.wmm.com/filmCatalog/makers/fm279.shtml Midi Onodera] in Women Make Movies

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Category:Living people

Category:Canadian contemporary artists

Category:Canadian experimental filmmakers

Category:Canadian video artists

Category:Canadian women video artists

Category:Canadian LGBTQ film directors

Category:Women experimental filmmakers

Category:Canadian women television writers

Category:Canadian television writers

Category:Artists from Toronto

Category:Film directors from Toronto

Category:Screenwriters from Toronto

Category:Canadian people of Japanese descent

Category:Canadian Film Centre alumni

Category:1961 births

Category:Asian-Canadian filmmakers

Category:Canadian women film directors

Category:Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners

Category:Canadian lesbian artists

Category:20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people

Category:21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people