White Owl Studios in Wahnapitae First Nation looking for inaugural film project

Kate Rutherford · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 17, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Film manufacture professionals successful Sudbury are hoping that a caller movie workplace successful Wahnapitae First Nation volition soon spot immoderate activity.

White Owl Studios is simply a 20,000 sq. ft. space, with a 65 ft precocious ceiling which resembles a immense achromatic Quonset hut, surrounded by a ample parking country and cleared area.

The task was instigated by Indigenous businessman Roy Roque successful collaboration with Los Angeles-based company Volume Global.

A year-and-a-half ago, Roque and Volume Global said that erstwhile the abstraction was complete, it would beryllium engaged with respective antithetic movie projects. 

However, existent White Owl spokesperson Axel Green said the collaboration with the California institution has since fallen through.

"I don't privation to get into excessively overmuch detail, but they didn't truly travel done connected what they agreed to do," said Green.

He is optimistic the state-of-the-art soundstage volition inactive beryllium a boon to the area's movie industry which helium feels has plateaued successful caller years.

"We anticipation to beryllium capable to foster section stories truthful section movie makers can  cater to the existing industry," helium said.

"Creating this ample soundstage, we tin present unfastened up the manufacture successful bluish Ontario, building larger bid that could determination successful much long-term, 8 to 10 months astatine a time."

Green is besides moving connected landing film projects for the studio and says helium has immoderate promising leads, though isn't acceptable to denote thing yet.

"I truly deliberation this is simply a turning constituent for the bluish Ontario manufacture and successful our maturation and our quality to archer our ain stories arsenic well," helium said.

While the gathering was finished astir a twelvemonth ago, the nationalist was archetypal invited wrong Wednesday to observe National Canadian Film Day, with manufacture types taking successful a mates of movies.

Janine Oloman, the proprietor of 46th Parallel Management endowment agency, represents more than a 100 actors, mostly successful bluish Ontario.

She began her vocation arsenic an adjunct manager and understands the magnitude of what could beryllium achieved with White Owl Studios.

"Sets tin beryllium built, greenish screens tin beryllium enactment up, a measurement partition could beryllium enactment successful here," said Oloman.

"You know, you could bash a batch of car shots with a 2D partition successful present wherever it looks similar the cars travelling down the road. But it's not. The actors are wrong there. Yeah, there's besides a batch of country extracurricular the workplace wherever you could physique back-lot benignant things similar a occidental town."

As to whether the soundstage could pull large projects with heavy pockets for her clients, Oloman hesitates slightly.

"Well, that's ever the hope, I conjecture the anticipation is, close now, that our Canadian dollar volition beryllium debased and that tons of films volition travel up here," she said.

Steve Schmidt from Chapleau and directed the 2014 transgression thriller, The Road to Tophet.

He says helium does a batch of movie editing these days and sees large imaginable successful White Owl Studios, admiring the audacity of its owners.

"There's thing truly peculiar astir taking a leap of religion and I felt that astir this place," helium said.

"I privation them each the best, and I deliberation if you sprout for the stars, it'll instrumentality you to immoderate bonzer places."