Midi Onodera facts for kids

Midi Onodera is a Japanese-Canadian filmmaker. She makes films and videos. Her work uses many different types of cameras and styles. These include old film cameras, video cameras, and even digital toy cameras. Her films often explore ideas about who we are as individuals and as groups.

Early Life and Inspiration

Midi Onodera grew up in Toronto, Canada. Her neighborhood was mostly white and Jewish. Her grandmother came to Canada over 80 years ago. She spoke a special mix of old Japanese and English.

In college, Midi studied independently. This meant she could use all the school's film equipment. A professor once told her she was "going against" traditional painting. This was because she wrote on her canvases and told stories. This criticism actually inspired her to become a filmmaker.

Education and Learning

Midi Onodera has studied at several places. She learned about art, writing, and new media. Here is a list of her main studies:

Her Career as a Filmmaker

Midi Onodera was born in Toronto, Ontario. She creates both short films and longer movies. Her work has been shown all around the world. She has made over 25 independent short films. She also made one full-length movie for theaters. Plus, she created many short videos.

Starting in 2006, Midi made almost 500 short videos for different projects. She also wrote two essays about mobile cinema. These were published in a journal called Jump Cut.

Film expert Catherine Russell talked about Midi's "movie-a-day" project. For this project, Midi made 365 short videos. She mostly used a toy digital camera called "VcamNow." Russell said these videos were like "a surprise package or candy." She felt they showed a new world of digital media. This world is broken into many pieces and is always connected.

Performance artist Tanya Mars described Midi as a "thoughtful, daring filmmaker." She said Midi was important when there was not much variety in Canadian art.

Midi Onodera has also been a speaker and judge for many film groups. She has visited universities around the world. For example, she was a guest speaker at Meiji Gaukin University in Tokyo, Japan, in 2008. She was also a jury member for the Toronto Arts Council in 2002. In 2015, she was a panelist for the Winnipeg Film Group.

Today, she works for MAC Cosmetics. She is a media consultant, director, and producer for them.

Films and Videos She Made

Here is a list of some of the films and videos Midi Onodera has created:

• 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)

Awards and Recognition

Midi Onodera has won many awards for her films. Here are some of them:

See also

In Spanish: Midi Onodera para niños

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