An Orillia man has launched a production company, and his first project is a personal one.
Wilverine Content is the brainchild of Wil Dunlop, who is directing a documentary about his late friend, Martin Streek.
Streek was a longtime on-air personality with 102.1 The Edge (CFNY), a Toronto radio station. He took his own life in July 2009.
“He was always very cool, very friendly to me,” Dunlop said. “He was a warm, charismatic, not cocky person, and he was so passionate about music.”
In the late ’90s, just out of film school, Dunlop was looking to get into the music video business. He’d hang around the Edge studios with demos.
“One day, (Streek) asked me what I was doing,” Dunlop recalled. “He took the VHS tape and then emailed me and said, ‘Good stuff'.”
Ten years after Streek’s death, Dunlop has decided to direct a documentary about him called Keep It Locked and Cranked, a phrase Streek often used while on the air.
Dunlop is conducting interviews with some well-known people in the industry for the documentary, which he hopes to release in time for next year’s Hot Docs and Toronto International Film Festival.
“I’m excited to pay homage to my friend, who I owe a lot to,” he said, noting the documentary will “tell the CFNY story through the eyes of Martin Streek.”
It was this project that inspired him to start Wilverine Content.
“When I started the Martin documentary, I realized I needed my own company,” he said.
He works out of his home in Orillia, and he plans to use as much local talent and as many local resources as possible. Orillia’s Effigy Design has developed the “key art” for the documentary.
“It’s good to have local people involved and do work they’re proud of,” Dunlop said. “It’s important to me because I’ve been involved in (productions) in northern Ontario and people are really supportive and proud of their work.”
The post-production work will happen in Orillia. Dunlop’s ultimate goal is to bring more projects to the area. He envisions films being shot and produced in the area.
If that happens, crews will be relying on local services, he said, recalling the time Black Fawn Productions was in the area to shoot a movie recently. A local restaurant catered to them the whole time they were here.
“I want to contribute to the local economy,” Dunlop said. “Wherever you live, you want to try to do something good there.”
