BY MATTHEW MOSKAL

Turmoil in the mining industry has plagued the City of Greater Sudbury for the past several months. However, one Sudbury filmmaker is providing a positive perspective on the influence of the mining industry.

John Milne’s latest project, Ground Rules, will be debuting at Sudbury’s Cinéfest Sept. 25 at 12:30 p.m.

The film focuses on the cultural and economic influences of mining in eight countries, which Milne said he feels will hit close to home with a Sudbury audience.

He turned the focus of his lens to Creighton Mine, and said he was fortunate enough to get into the mine before the recent strike.

Because Ground Rules is an educational piece, the filmmaker said he wants to be relevant when operations begin again.

“We want to try and keep this as timeless as possible.”

Creighton Mine wasn’t the only location facing troubling times after the filming process for Ground Rules.

“The mine we filmed in Australia cut its operation in half. A lot of the people we worked with there lost their jobs just after we left.”

However, the presence of mining operations has changed the face of other locales visited while filming Ground Rules.

“In Ghana, they were in real rough shape before the mine came. They had representatives from the mines talking with the tribes about setting up schools and training doctors afterwards.”

Despite the distance travelled, Milne said he would still consider Ground Rules largely to be a Sudbury-based community project.

“I’ve been taking voice-over work (for the film) to Cosmic Dave’s (Sound Emporium) since they opened up," he said.

"The Sudbury spirit is what I’m trying to promote here. The homegrown flavour is what’s exciting about it.”

Not only did Cosmic Dave’s entrepreneurs Mark Browning and Jessica Nadel help in the process of filming and editing sound with Milne, they also made an appearance as a mining family in the film. Both are featured in an educational segment about the importance of mined materials in everyday life.

“One of the major themes (of the film) is a lot of what we see, if it’s not grown, it comes from a mine,” said Milne.
Milne said his connections through his work as an assistant producer at Science North led him to the backing from Caterpillar to make Ground Rules.

“I’m proud of that organization, the knowledge that the staff scientists have as a team, what they bring to all of our exhibits and all our projects is world class,” said Milne.

After Ground Rules hits the silver screen at Cinéfest, Milne will continue filming his latest project, a satire of the Canadian music scene.

“The feature that we are currently shooting is a film about the music industry. It takes place here, Montreal and Toronto but the core group of actors are from Sudbury.”