Wookey Films celebrates decade in film, TV

River Park South

St. Boniface

St. Vital

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This article was published 01/11/2023 (1062 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A sibling-powered local film and television company is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Wookey Films was founded in 2013 by brother-and-sister duo Janelle and Jérémie Wookey and has continued to make its mark on the local media landscape. The siblings, who are 37 and 35 respectively, grew up in River Park South, attended Collège Louis-Riel, and now both live in old St. Vital.

Described as a 2SLGBTQ+ and Métis-owned enterprise, Wookey Films has championed diverse and underrepresented voices within the community and across the nation, from St. Laurent, Man., to downtown Toronto, according to a news release.

Janelle Wookey said it feels great to be marking a decade in business.

“It feels a bit like, for the last 10 years, in the back of our minds we’ve been thinking, ‘Will this work?’ I think we can rest in peace now,” she said recently, with a laugh.

In the last decade, Wookey Films has delivered more than 80 hours of nationally broadcast content in English, French and Indigenous languages, and it earned a 2023 Canadian Screen Award nomination and a Banff Rockie Award for its short piece called A Nation and Her Mother.

The company has also produced projects such the ImagineNATIVE 2014 best short documentary Treading Water: Plight of the 2011 Manitoba First Nations Flood Evacuees, five seasons of the Unis TV series Comment devenir adulte, and the 2016 Prix Gémeaux-nominated documentary Les boys du ballet.

A short, independent film created by the siblings titled Mémère Métisse — made while Janelle was studying creative communications at Red River College and which aired in 2008 on CBC, APTN and Radio-Canada — turned out to be the major impetus for what became Wookey Films.

“My school project was huge for us, as it helped us realize what we could do together,” Janelle said, noting the pair has been actively creating projects, such as home videos, since childhood.

Now firmly established in the industry, the Wookeys have a specific mandate that’s important to them when creating content.

“We decided a long time ago that with every project we wanted to create empathy between communities,” Wookey said.

She said the company is now also moving more and more into the realm of scripted content.

Wookey said there can be challenges with siblings working together, not least the business part of the relationship, but such bumps in the road were ironed out relatively quickly.

“Obviously, there can be challenges, and the first year was the most difficult, but by the second year we’d found our groove,” she said.

“Ultimately, we’re lucky to have had the opportunity to work together, especially as we’re best friends.”

Wookey Films is located at 705-70 Arthur St. in Winnipeg’s Exchange District.

Visit www.wookeyfilms.com for more information.