Image: Wave (2021) by Wrik Mead
About CFMDC
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.
Artists should be paid for their work.
Art drives change, challenges conventions, and transforms lives.
Advocate for critical space outside the mainstream for artists' works.
Advocate for voices rooted in community that disrupt dominant discourse.
Explore opportunities to build community, encourage dialogue and reach new audiences.
Our Office
If you have a scheduled meeting at our office, please visit us at the address below:
1411 Dufferin Street, Unit D, Toronto, Ontario, M6H 4C7
Our office hours are 10:00AM - 6:00PM, Monday to Thursday.
We are open occasionally for weekend and evening programming (check out our Programming page for more information).
Accessibility
CFMDC’s office has two ramps at its entrance. Our office and cinema have wide pathways. Our cinema has one long ramp into the space. The cinema is carpeted. Our cinema seating is reconfigurable.
Our space has two large, private accessible and gender-netural bathrooms.
We welcome onto our premises service animals and support persons.
The daily work of CFMDC takes place in Toronto which is covered by Treaty 13, a treaty signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaty signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands. We also acknowledge the ‘Dish’ With One Spoon treaty that covers the land of what is now called southern Ontario and is between the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee.
Our territorial acknowledgment is meant to stand as a first step towards reflecting on our existence on stolen lands and our commitment to better understanding the complex and varied histories of this land, the territories of the Anishinaabe, the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat, the Cree and any other Nation who cared for the land (acknowledged and unacknowledged, recorded and unrecorded).
We accept that acknowledgment in this way doesn’t end here and is a living statement open to discussion and change. We intend this Territorial Acknowledgement to demonstrate our commitment to continued awareness, reflection, and establishing reciprocal relations. Therefore, we do not intend this statement to signify closure and acceptance of the continued structural conditions of settler colonialism.
We also acknowledge the Treaty of Niagara as a founding moment of constitutional relations between Indigenous Nations and the colonial Nation as an important part of Canada’s history and should be respected as part of a Nation to Nation relationship.
We reference these recent treaties and agreements of this land that is today called Toronto to acknowledge the responsibility of settlers. Importantly, we remain cognizant that the history of Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island is thousands of years old and that communities and territories extend beyond colonial legal boundaries and that there were systems of sharing and negotiations between nations through their own diplomatic and legal systems.
This acknowledgment is a first step in the ongoing process of decolonization. Compelling us, our settler colonial members and community members, to further understand our obligations to the Nations of these territories and the concrete treaties that are part of the long history on Turtle Island.
Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community and on this territory.
We strive to work in the spirit of the 94 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Report; Particularly Recommendations for Museums and Archives and Recommendations for Media and Reconciliation. We also work with the knowledge of the importance of recognition of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the four First Nations Principles of OCAP®. And as a media arts organization and member of the Independent Media Arts Alliance (IMAA) we would like to acknowledge and support the incredible work of National Indigenous Media Arts Coalition (NIMAC).