Andrew Munger is stepping down from his role as director of unscripted development at White Pine Pictures to relaunch his own indie prodco Ultramagnetic Productions, where he has a slate of drama and documentary projects in development.

The veteran Toronto-based producer first operated Ultramagnetic Productions from 1997 to 2004, producing non-fiction projects including Walmart Nation, Campaign: The Making of a Candidate, Xanadu: In Search of Domestic Perfection and Make Some Noise! He closed the company in 2005 to run television production at Canadian non-profit World Vision before moving to White Pine Pictures in 2014.

Munger will continue to serve as EP on several key White Pine Pictures documentaries, including Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On (Bell/PBS), a coproduction with Eagle Vision and Paquin Entertainment directed by Madison Thomas; and The Con: Churchill and Roosevelt’s Secret American War (Super Channel/WNET/ARTE/Beyond Rights), directed by John L’Ecuyer and coproduced with Quebec’s PMA and Germany’s Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion.

He’s also attached to other projects in advanced development at White Pine, including Encrypted: The Dark Side of Digital; Woodstock Dreaming; and a yet-to-be-titled Midwest crime project. All three projects are repped by CAA’s Hannah Epstein.

The development slate at Ultramagnetic includes scripted drama Michael’s Wars, based on British-Canadian journalist Michael Maclear’s career as a foreign correspondent, and feature doc Say It Loud: How a Black Music Mecca Grew in the Great White North, about Canada’s strong Jamaican music scene and the pioneering musicians who laid the groundwork for such contemporary Canadian recording stars such as Drake and Daniel Caesar. The two projects don’t have broadcasters or streamers attached yet.

A news release says Munger has optioned Maclear’s 2013 memoir Guerrilla Nation: My Wars In and Out of Vietnam to make Michael’s Wars, in a deal negotiated by Canadian attorney Michael Levine with the exclusive cooperation of Maclear’s daughter, author Kyo Maclear.

For Say It Loud, Graeme Mathieson is attached as director and Clement Virgo as EP, with musicologists Nicholas Jennings and Klive Walker serving as consultants. The project has received development support from Ontario Creates and is intended for a festival launch and/or theatrical release before finding a home with networks.

In a statement, Munger said the new arrangement with White Pine gives him “greater flexibility to develop passion projects, both scripted and unscripted, under the relaunched and revitalized Ultramagnetic umbrella.”

“I’ve had a great run with White Pine and want to thank Peter Raymont and Steve Ord for their support and the opportunity to work at one of Canada’s most respected and successful production companies, and to collaborate with some of Canada’s most talented filmmakers like Daniel Roher, Phyllis Ellis, Fred Peabody, John L’Ecuyer, Mike Sheehan and many others,” he added.

Raymont praised Munger for working “tirelessly in developing documentaries and doc series at White Pine Pictures,” where his credits included Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band (Bell/Crave, Hulu, Magnolia Pictures), executive produced by Martin Scorsese, and the Emmy- and Canadian Screen Award–nominated Toxic Beauty and All Governments Lie.

Munger also created and coproduced the three-part wildlife series Wild Pacific Rescue and Arctic Secrets, both for Blue Ant Media’s Love Nature.