Salter Street Films was a Canadian television and film

production company A production company, production house or production studio is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television show, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and video ...

based in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

History

Salter Street Films was founded by brothers

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

and Michael Donovan in 1983. Paul was trained as a director at the London Film School; Michael graduated from

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

’s Law School and started as a producer of Paul's film projects. Salter Street Films was named after the street in

, where Paul and Michael had been living. The company started life with early problems. Its first major feature film was '' Def-Con 4'' (1985), which eventually became profitable, but other films such as '' George's Island'' (1989), '' Buried on Sunday'' (1992), and '' Paint Cans'' (1994), though critically acclaimed, were money-losers. The company's salvation turned out to be the

sci-fi Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

TV series ''

Lexx ''Lexx'' (also known as ''LEXX: The Dark Zone Stories'' and ''Tales from a Parallel Universe'') is a science fiction television series created by Lex Gigeroff and brothers Paul Donovan (writer), Paul and Michael Donovan (producer), Michael Dono ...

'', which was a hit in Germany, Russia, and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. This Canadian-German co-production went on to become a lucrative money-maker through international sales and was one of the first shows to develop a cult following almost exclusively through online. Concurrently, the Donovan brothers found success with the satirical '' This Hour Has 22 Minutes'' becoming a hit on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

as well as other TV series such as '' CODCO'', ''

Emily of New Moon ''Emily of New Moon'' is the first in a series of novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery about a Canadian orphan girl growing up in Prince Edward Island. Montgomery is also the author of ''Anne of Green Gables'' series. It was first published in 1923. ...

'', '' Made in Canada'', '' Blackfly'', children's TV series ''Pirates'', and a TV special '' Talking to Americans''. These shows found homes on the CBC as well as other Canadian networks and cable channels. Salter Street also created the

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

-animated preschool TV series '' Poko'', which is still in production. In 1994, it has a 20% interest in The Popcorn Channel, which was rumoured to be on the air in the first quarter of 1995. In the 1990s, it meant to mine European co-production with four telefilms, which were planning on to be in production in 1995. Based on their reputation for political satire, U.S. documentary filmmaker

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...

approached Salter Street to produce his project '' Bowling for Columbine''. Michael Donovan agreed and arranged financing in Canada and Germany. The documentary won both the Anniversary Prize at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

and the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

for Best Documentary Feature Film. In 2000, a year after the Donovan brothers had taken the company public, Salter Street was awarded the broadcast license for IFC by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

. This potentially lucrative award, combined with Salter Street's reputation as a content-provider, attracted interest from the powerful media corporation

Alliance Atlantis Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operator in Canada. Alliance Atlantis also had offices in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Los ...

. Alliance bought Salter Street from the majority shareholders the following year.Alliance Atlantis buys Salter Street Films
February 12, 2001, CBC News Paul and Michael Donovan remained on as producers. In 2003, two years after the purchase, Alliance closed the operation, transferring Salter Street's ongoing TV productions to Alliance. Paul Donovan has continued as an independent producer and director. In May 2004, Michael Donovan formed the Halifax Film Company with all of the former Salter Street employees. In 2006, Halifax Film merged with Decode Entertainment to form DHX Media (now as

WildBrain WildBrain Ltd. is a Canadian media, animation studio, production company, production, and brand licensing company, mostly associated as an entertainment company. The company is known for owning the largest independent library of Children's tel ...

). DHX sold the studio in 2018 to IoM Media Ventures and was rebranded to the Island of Misfits.

References

External links

Official website
(archived 2002-06-03) {{Authority control Defunct film and television production companies of Canada Cinema of Nova Scotia Companies based in Halifax, Nova Scotia Mass media companies established in 1983 Mass media companies disestablished in 2003 1983 establishments in Nova Scotia 2003 disestablishments in Nova Scotia Lexx This Hour Has 22 Minutes Former Corus Entertainment subsidiaries Alliance Atlantis Former Lionsgate subsidiaries