Some of those OCA artists joined the radical and seminal, publicly-funded, artist-run centre The Kensington Arts Association (KAA), later named the Centre for Experimental Arts and Communication (CEAC) (1973-1978). In 1974 the KAA, at 4 Kensington Ave., showed a 20-minute "standard" 8mm film by local artist Darryl Tonkin, and in 1975 it began showing 16mm, 8mm and super 8 films regularly. The CEAC, at 15 Duncan St., helped to found the short-lived Canadian Super 8 Distribution Centre in 1976, which in turn published a Directory in 1977 with 118 super 8 films, some 8mm films, and some videos, by 50 Canadian artists.

The CEAC's regular Super 8 Open Screenings and other film screenings led to their founding of The Funnel Experimental Film Theatre (1977-1989), in their basement on Duncan St. which they had previously used for their punk music club the Crash 'n' Burn. One co-founder of the Super 8 Festival, the Super 8 Distribution Centre and The Funnel was filmmaker Ross McLaren. He also taught filmmaking at OCA until 1990, inspiring many interesting super 8 filmmakers who became associated with The Funnel.

In 1978 the CEAC was "banned in Canada" so The Funnel moved independently to the front of the ground floor of 507 King St. East where its 30 members (bios & filmos) built a state-of-the-art 100-seat cinema with raked, fixed theatre seats, a projection booth and sound recording studio, darkroom, art gallery, library and office. Eventually with public funding, it provided 16mm, 8mm and super 8 film production, distribution and exhibition facilities, for personal film artists only, excluding the all-consuming crowd of conventional filmmakers.

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The Funnel hosted 60 public events per year, with many legendary "avant-garde" filmmakers visiting from around the world with their work, including a 5-night performance by Jack Smith from New York City. Many of them said that it had the best-quality super 8 projection they had seen. It's two distribution catalogues in 1984 and 1987 listed 320 films and other media, almost half of them on super 8, by 80 artists. It inspired an unequalled amount of super 8 filmmaking in Toronto.

The Funnel's unique philosophy was explained in this excerpt from its
introduction to The Funnel Film Collection Catalogue:

"For various reasons an artist may never make copies of his or her work.
A film or tape may change from presentation to presentation as the artist re-edits the piece; the nature of the film stock or material may preclude its reproducibility; in the extreme a film may exist only as a sculptural entity to be viewed on rewinds.
Each presentation of a work of this nature is a unique performance.

Accommodation of the diverse existing and possible future formats is a policy of the Collection, and a reflection of an historical and contemporary practice of artists' film."

But The Funnel was long a victim of the Ontario Film Classification Act. Partly because of that, it suffered a political split in 1986, then the remaining members made an ill-timed move to the front of the second floor of 11 Soho St. in 1987. Public funding was reduced, forcing them to dismantle their newly-built theatre a year later, but the group held rare screenings at OCA and The Euclid Theatre until 1989. Its collapse left a vacuum in Toronto still felt today. All of its equipment, and some artists' original films, disappeared, and many of Toronto's finest small-format filmmakers, such as Jim Anderson, Sharon Cook, Fast Wurms, and Villem Teder, stopped making films.

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The Funnel Film Collection Pamphlet
Toronto, 1982

From 1979 The Funnel received considerable public funding for its programming and its production equipment because there was no other such publicly-funded film theatre or production co-op in Toronto at the time. But by 1982 it had received no funding for its film distribution work because the funders thought it was too similar to the publicly-funded Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC), operating in Toronto since 1967. This was in spite of the fact that The Funnel alone distributed 8mm and super 8 films (as well as 16mm), original uncopied films and film performances, something the CFMDC had repeatedly refused to do, concentrating exclusively on the standard but more costly 16mm prints (copies).

In 1982 The Funnel began its no-budget distribution service with this simple pamphlet - one, double-sided, black & white, 8.5"x14" sheet, with text only, photocopied and folded. Members John Porter and Jim Anderson then took a sample of the work on a self-financed, nine-city, public screening tour of Europe including Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and the London Filmmakers Co-op.

See! - The Funnel Film Collection Catalogue, 1984
See! - The Funnel Catalogue Supplement, 1987

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(digitized for CineZine by Fringe Online, 2007)

THE FUNNEL Experimental Film Theatre
507 King Street East, Toronto, Ont., M5A 1M3 (416) 364-7003

THE FUNNEL FILM COLLECTION

A permanent, juried collection of experimental film containing 16mm, Super 8mm, Regular 8mm, double system and performance film. In general, the rental rate is $2 a minute plus shipping both ways. The Funnel acts as an agent for most of the filmmakers represented in the collection, and can arrange for the filmmaker to be present at the screenings. The Collection is made available to curators and critics for in-house previews. Arrangements can be made for the Funnel to curate a package of films. For further information please contact: Michaelle McLean or Anna Gronau.

David Anderson - Jim Anderson - David Bennell - Debby Clarkin - Martha Davis
Judith Doyle - Bruce Elder - FastWurms - Mikki Fontana - Anna Gronau
Robert Gutteridge - Frieder Hochheim - Patrick Jenkins - Robin Lee
Toby MacLennan - Paul McGowan - Ross McLaren - Michaelle McLean
Michael Merrill - Suzanne Naughton - Stephen Niblock - Midi Onodera
John Porter - Robert Rayher - Alan Sondheim - Villem Teder - Joyce Wieland

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DAVID ANDERSON
Big Wave (1973, 6 minutes, 16mm, silent)
Birth Film (1976, 8 minutes, 16mm, silent)
Washago (1976, 10 minutes, 16mm, silent)
3 Poems (1976, 10 minutes, 16mm, silent)
Amaryllis (1973, 3 1/2 minutes, 8mm, silent)
Sign Man (1978, 20 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Bi-Rite (1979, 11 minutes, Super 8, silent)

JIM ANDERSON
Canada Mini-Notes (1975, 15 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Gravity is Not Sad but Glad (1975, 95 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Yonge Street (1972, 7 minutes, 16mm, sound)
R.O.M. (1972, 11 minutes, 16mm, sound)
S-MO (1981, 10 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Scream of a Butterfly (1969, 6 minutes, 16mm, silent)
Moving Bicycle Picture (1978, 12 minutes, 16mm, silent)
Bois de Balzac (1981, 55 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Yellow Woman Meets X Woman (1981, 9 minutes, Super 8, sound)

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DAVID BENNELL
Brooklyn Bridge (1980, 18 minutes, 16mm, sound)

DEBBY CLARKIN
Sides (1980, 5 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Walking Italians (1980, 4 minutes, Super 8, silent)
The Guest / Monster (1982, 10 minutes, Super 8, sound)

MARTHA DAVIS
Applying and Removing (1979, 22 minutes, Super 8, silent)
A Ball in California (1980, 22 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Introducing Elwy (1979, 5 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Subway (1979, 20 minutes,Super 8, sound)

JUDITH DOYLE
Launch (1982, 20 minutes, Super 8, sound)
Private Property / Public History (1982, 18 minutes, Super 8, sound)

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BRUCE ELDER
She Is Away (1975, 13 1/2 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Permutations and Combinations (1976, 8 minutes, 16mm, sound)

FASTWURMS (Kim Kozzi & Napo B.)
Triggers & Scanners (1980, 15 minutes, Super 8, sound)
Universal Colour System (1980, 15 minutes, Super 8, sound)
Gone Fishing / Zig Zag (1980, 13 minutes, Super 8, sound)

MIKKI FONTANA
Godzilla Versus the C. N. Tower (1981, 8 minutes, Super 8, sound)

ANNA GRONAU
Maple Leaf Understory (1978, 10 minutes, 16mm, silent)
In Camera Sessions (1979, 5 minutes, Super 8, sound)

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ROBERT GUTTERIDGE
By Pass (1979/80, 11 1/2 minutes, I6mm, sound)
Ephemeral Perpetuity (1979, 9 1/2 minutes, 16mm, sound)

FRIEDER HOCHHEIM
Plurality of Vibratory Circumstances (1976, 10 minutes, 16mm, silent)
Accumulative Distinctions Extending A False Utility (1977, 8 minutes, 16mm, sound)

PATRICK JENKINS
Wedding Before Me (1976, 8 minutes, Super 8, sound)
Room Film (1977, 7 minutes, Super 8, sound)
Wedding Before Me (1976, 7 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Ruse (1980, 7 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Shadowplay (1981, 13 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Sign Language (1982, 10 minutes, 16mm, sound)

ROBIN LEE
Travel Song (1981, 10 minutes, Super 8, silent)

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TOBY MACLENNAN
Absence of a Hole (1981, 22 minutes, 16mm, sound)

PAUL McGOWAN
Farmiskipome (I975, 2 1/2 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Eggyoke (1976, 4 1/2 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Loose Ends (1977, 13 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Steve & Bob (1980, 6 1/2 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Nashville Cats (1980, 26 minutes, Super 8, sound)

ROSS McLAREN
Weather Building (1976, 10 minutes, 16mm/ Super 8, sound)
I. E. (1976, 15 minutes, 16mm, silent)
Crash & Burn (1977, 27 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Summer Camp (1978, 62 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Snorkel (1979, 10 minutes, 16mm, sound)
January 17, 1979 (1979, 5 minutes, 16mm, sound)
9 x 12 (1982, 1 1/2 minutes, 16mm, silent)

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MICHAELLE McLEAN
Mornng Bed-X (1979, 3 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Untitled ([]) (1980, 4 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Still Life (1981, 2 1/2 minutes, Super 8, silent)

MICHAEL MERRILL
Untamed Hooves (1974, 3 minutes,16mm, sound)

SUZANNE, NAUGHTON
Mondo Punk (1978, 6 minutes, 16mm, sound)

STEPHEN NIBLOCK
Translachins (1974, 10 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Buddha Las Vegas (1980, 5 minutes, 16mm, silent)
12345678910 A New Fiction (1980, 10 minutes, 16mm, silent)
A Lady's Face (1981, 20 minutes, Super 8, double screen projection, silent)
The Magician Sees (1981, film performance)

MIDI ONODERA
The Bird That Chirped Down Bathurst Street (1981, 3 1/2 minutes, 16mm, sound)

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JOHN PORTER
Drive in Movies (1981, 7 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Musical Ride (1978, 1 minute, Super 8, silent)
Mother and Child (1977, 2 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Tartan Tattoo (1978, 4 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Fireworks (1978, 2 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Angel Baby (1979, 2 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Fairies (1978, 3 1/2 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Landscape (1977, 1 minute, Super 8, silent)
Ice Follies (1979, 3 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Calendar Girl (1981, 2 1/2 minutes, Super 8, sound)
Animal in Motion (1981, 2 minutes, Super 8 or 16mm, sound, film performance)
Firefly (1981, 1 minute, performance)
Santa Claus Parade (1976, 5 minutes, Super 8, silent)
High School Mosaic (1977, 3 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Fashion Show (1978, 3 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Rock Jam (1978, 7 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Amusement Park (1978/79, 6 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Cinefuge (1979, 6 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Down On Me (1980, 4 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Firefly (1980, 3 1/2 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Scanning (1981, 3 minutes, Super 8, film performance, silent)
Video Compilation of 20 Films (1981, 60 minutes, 3/4" Tape, silent & sound)

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ROBERT RAYHER
Letter to a Long Lost Friend (1980, 8 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Yelling Fire (1980, 5 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Eureka (1980, 5 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Eclipse (1980, 2 minutes, 16mm, sound)

ALAN SONDHEIM
Hollywood (1981, 60 minutes, 16mm, mag sound)

VILLEM TEDER
Red, Eyes, This Way Out (1976, 10 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Trees and Grass (1980, 10 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Sequel to Trees & Grass (1981, 60 minutes, Super 8, sound on tape)
Muskoka (1980, 20 minutes, Super 8, silent)
Man Ray No.3 (1979, 8 minutes, I6mm, silent)
Homage to Henry Ford (1978, 4 minutes, Super 8, sound)
Batik No.5 (1981, 60 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Film of a Filmmaker by a Filmmaker, Unpacking His Bags
(1980, 9 minutes, 16mm/Super 8, silent)
Cellular Progression (1975/77/79, 10 minutes, 16mm, sound)
Incidents from the Trim Bin (1979, 30 minutes, 16mm, sound)
The Interval/Resonances (1979, 60 minutes, 16mm, film performance, sound)
Psychology 101 (1982, 30 minutes, 16mm, triple projection performance, sound)
Vacation Studies (1981, 30 minutes, 16mm, silent)
Leading Up To (1980, 10 minutes, 16mm, sound)

JOYCE WIELAND
Watersark (1964/65, 14 minutes, 16mm, silent)

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The Funnel > Frameline Radio 1986-2008

The Funnel Catalogue Supplement 1987
44 Pages! 30 Filmmakers! 120 Films & Related Work!

Introduction; Index; Artists A-J; Artists L-Y;

Alphabetical Film Listing; Funnel Publications;

Appendix (Filmography / Bibliography / Screenings).

The Funnel's First Catalogue 1984
62 Pages! 50 Filmmakers! 200 Films & Related Work!

Artists A-J, Artists L-W,

Introduction w/ Alphabetical Film Listing,

Appendix (Filmography / Bibliography / Screenings).

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