The 14th the8fest OUT OF PLACE: Spotlight on the Super 8 Films of Midi Onodera

9:00 pm Friday July 9

The 14^th the8fest OUT OF PLACE: Spotlight on the Super 8 Films of Midi Onodera

Curated by Milada Kovacova

8:00 pm Sunday July 11

Midi Onodera in Conversation with Milada Kovacova

For online screening information: http://the8fest.com/

OUT OF PLACE’s mission is to bring to the foreground the small-gauge work by Midi Onodera whose Super 8 artistic practice needs to be reintroduced to the next generation of feminist filmmakers and to those who were absent in viewing this work during the first wave. Super 8 moviemaking is where Midi’s artistic practice began. Midi is a pioneer in the lexicon of local histories. Midi has been around the block continuing to engage in making work in whatever format is at hand for the last four decades and she has the accolades to prove it.

But you feel Midi’s love of Super 8 where the tactile nature of making movies hooked her. Midi, like so many small-gauge filmmakers, used ingenuity in the face of need; she used a razor blade and scotch tape to edit her first Super 8 film. But more so, Midi was the first Japanese-Canadian lesbian in the underground cinema landscape who had the technical prowess, the cinematic jargon but also had something to say. Midi’s voice continues to hold the power of punk – during the time of COVID, her films are bound to entice audiences in what was before and to get on with it. Nostalgically, the 1980s were tough times but Midi’s artistic practice flourished; OUT OF PLACE: Spotlight On The Super 8 Films Of Midi Onodera is a testament to Midi’s perseverance

—Milada Kovacova