White Owl Film Studios in Wahnapitae First Nation is seeking new projects and preparing to celebrate Canadian National Film Day on April 16 by welcoming the community to visit the facility and take in a few Canadian films.
Chief executive officer Roy Roque said that White Owl Film Studios is an Indigenous-led space built to support and uplift all creative voices.
“This studio is my way of giving back to the community — creating opportunities, strengthening our industry, and ensuring Northern Ontario remains a thriving hub for film and television,” Roque explained.
“We are proud to welcome productions of all sizes while also building relationships with larger streamers, opening doors for collaboration and new investment in the region.”
Rocque operates a number of businesses including Creators Choice, a cannabis dispensary located in Wahnapitae First Nation, and Roque Construction.
Wahnapitae First Nation is situated on the north shores of Lake Wanapitei, north of Sudbury, and has attracted both locals and tourists to Hiawatha’s Restaurant (formerly Rocky’s Restaurant and Marina).
White Owl’s 20,000 square feet of clear-span studio space with 64-foot ceilings in a self-contained, inflated envelope is a one-of-a-kind, Indigenous-led studio.
They offer full-service rigging and logistics support through Upright Services and 1,000 amps of power. They are also exploring adding a full LED volume wall — a wall of LED panels that can display various backgrounds in real time — to host and create virtual productions.
Axel Green, the facilities manager, who is originally from Chapleau, has 20 years of experience in the film industry as an actor, technician and producer.
Green said the large studio space and over two acres of land provide the opportunity to shoot over winter and build massive sets for television series that could be put in for months at a time. Offering year-round filming allows for large-scale productions to offer long-term positions for local crew members.
The studio was built last year in partnership with the Los Angeles-based film company Volume Global to be an exclusive virtual production stage, although White Owl and Volume Global have since parted ways.
White Owl is now redirecting its focus and seeking new partners to take advantage of the world-class resources, comprehensive production support, and significant financial incentives to filmmakers from Canada and beyond.
The studio is currently establishing a memorandum of understanding with Weengushk Film Institute, an Indigenous film and media arts training centre on Manitoulin Island, to be the official training partner.
This provides the opportunity to foster career pathways for Indigenous and Northern Ontario talent and employment opportunities.
“We have a small industry, and we think that with a high tide, all boats rise,” Green said about the collaboration possible in the North.
Potential collaborators include film studio Hideaway Pictures in North Bay and Sudbury, and the production company New Metric Media, producers of the TV show “Shoresy”, which films next door in the town of Capreol. The two film companies have reached significant success.
“In the Canadian film industry right now, we’re at a key point where our own intellectual property and our own stories, our own voices, carry to a multinational audience. There’s more appeal to fund our own intellectual property,” Green said.
“So as a facility, there’s already an existing industry here of great producers that come in, and we can help and collaborate with them to create their projects. Having this infrastructure allows us to bring in and attract larger networks and television series.”
Although the community is 50 kilometres from the city, Green anticipates businesses will be drawn to build in the area. Being located on Indigenous land, they are cutting away the bureaucracy that often comes when locating in a larger city centre.
“We are a little bit out of town, but there are some serious advantages to being out here on Indigenous land, and the support that we can get from the community out here is outstanding,” he shared.
They can easily move forward with larger productions, which could even include American producers who want to take advantage of the low Canadian dollar.
“With the Canadian dollar currently low, there is a surge in international productions looking to Canada as a filming destination,” Green said.
He’s been taking calls and expects an influx in productions over the summer and into the fall, especially when Toronto studio space is at a premium and often not available.
White Owl Film Studios is perfectly positioned to capitalize on the demand, providing cutting-edge production capabilities while ensuring that the economic benefits are felt by local and Indigenous communities, said Green.
