Film industry ‘going to triple’ after $15-M donation to Red River

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This article was published 12/09/2024 (434 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Powered by a $15-million donation, it will be ‘lights, camera, action!’ for years to come at RRC Polytech’s newly created Schroeder Institute of Entertainment and Media Arts.

At a jam-packed event Thursday at the school’s downtown Manitou a bi Bii daziigae building, Walter Schroeder let everyone know even though it’s been 50 years since he’s lived in Winnipeg, the gift — the largest RRC Polytech has received — is near to his heart.

“When my parents brought me home from the hospital, it was to a house in the 500 block of Elgin Avenue, just down the street from where we are today,” said the founder and former CEO/owner of Toronto-based Dominion Bond Rating Service, which he sold in 2015. (Manitou a bi Bii daziigae is located on the 300 block of Elgin.)

The new Schroeder Institute is expected to produce a pipeline of skills and talents that will fuel continued growth in Manitoba’s burgeoning film and television production industry.

Fred Meier, president and CEO of RRC Polytech, said while he and the Schroeder Foundation (Walter and wife Maria’s philanthropic organization) were in talks about the donation, they noted it was already providing scholarships for Sisler High School grads to attend the Vancouver Film School.

“The first thing we thought about is, ‘Why there? Why can’t we do that here?’” Meier said Thursday. “’Why can’t we keep that talent in Manitoba?’ Because once you leave and get an education somewhere else, you will be attracted to work elsewhere.”

“The first thing we thought about is … ‘Why can’t we keep that talent in Manitoba?’ Because once you leave and get an education somewhere else, you will be attracted to work elsewhere.”–Fred Meier, president and CEO of RRC Polytech

The Schroeder Institute will start offering 12 core courses, including some already available at RRC Polytech such as digital media design and graphic design, and a number of new ones: digital film and media production, video and motion graphics and game development/art.

Courses in animation and entertainment production management will be added in coming terms, as well as funding for applied research in fields such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

The night before Thursday’s announcement, four feature films were being shot in the Exchange District, featuring stars such as Mark Hamill and Vince Vaughan and directors such as Francis Lawrence.

“This is a great day for Winnipeg’s film and entertainment industry, which is as important as the pork processing and bus manufacturing and all the things we brag about. The cultural industries really are an industry,” said Kenny Boyce, city manager of films and special events.

Even though the Schroeders built their fortune outside Winnipeg (the DBRS sale price was estimated at the time to be US$500 million), they have been giving back to the city for many years.

Last year, the foundation helped pay the costs for 12 students from Sisler’s CREATE Program to travel to Los Angeles to pitch their animated series and short films to industry professionals at Nickelodeon Studios.

The foundation has spent more than $2 million at the high school since 2018, by providing scholarships, merit awards, equipment and an industry liaison to the CREATE program.

It currently supports about 100 post-secondary students with full scholarships at RRC Polytech and the University of Manitoba.

“This is a great day for Winnipeg’s film and entertainment industry, which is as important as the pork processing and bus manufacturing and all the things we brag about. The cultural industries really are an industry.”–Kenny Boyce

One of them, Elliott Stewart, who is in his second year at RRC Polytech’s graphic design program, said Thursday the scholarship helped him realize his vision and potential future in a field he is “immensely passionate” about.

In 2018, the foundation donated $10 million to three Winnipeg schools — St. John’s High School, Sisler and Daniel McIntyre — in some of the neediest neighbourhoods of the city.

The RRC Polytech gift combines Schroeder’s passion to help youth attain their educational dreams, as well as his interest in the entertainment industry.

He has been the executive producer of documentary films. He also owns the rights to the Gordon Lightfoot songbook and is in the process of developing a Broadway musical based on the songs of the Canadian music legend.

He’s also donated millions to a private, not-for-profit surgical centre being built in Richmond Hill, Ont.

Schroeder, now in his 80s but still sporting a full head of lengthy white hair, said: “We are helping as many people as we can.”

The combination of the digital media work at Sisler High and the Schroeder Institute of Entertainment and Media Arts might eventually attract companies such as Disney and Nickelodeon to set up offices in Winnipeg, Schroeder said.

Carol Vivier, co-chair of the institute’s advisory council and former longtime CEO/film commissioner of Manitoba Film & Music, said the creation of such a post-secondary institute is “incredibly important.”

“People used to say to me: ‘You have such a robust industry, you must have great post–secondary institutions,’” Vivier said. “We have some, but we didn’t have the post-secondary that we should have. The (film and television production) industry developed in spite of not having all these pieces.

“Now, having this formally announced today, the industry is going to triple,” she said. “It’s phenomenal.”

The Winnipeg film and television industry is expected to host about $400 million worth of productions this year. (“In 1992, we hit $17 million and we thought it was fantastic. We were so thrilled,” Vivier said.)

Meier said the Schroeder Institute will mean all-around growth at RRC Polytech’s downtown campus, including additional faculty and students.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca