To earn extra money while he was working on his graduate degree, he got a job as assistant director on the Sidney J. Furie film A Cool Sound from Hell.
[2] Owen was hired as a writer, but was put on camera work for the film À St-Henri le cinq septembre (September Five at Saint-Henri).
He was taken under the wing of producer Tom Daly and became part of the NFB’s storied Unit B. Owen suggested that he create a film about the Olympic runner Bruce Kidd; Daly approved it and the result was the critically-acclaimed Runner (with the narration written by W. H. Auden and voiced by Don Francks[3]).
Bruce Kidd reported that his perfectionism was exhausting but, more importantly, the NFB was a government organization, and films were produced with a team approach.
Owen did not always toe the line; he believed that it was important for filmmakers to “take chances”, “go out on a limb” and then have the courage to stand behind their work.
The most senior executive on the project was cinematographer John Spotton who, while respecting the work that Owen was doing, could not hide the fact that they had shot 60,000 feet of film, without permission.
When this was discovered in September, some NFB executives were outraged, but Daly liked what he saw and gave Owen more money to re-shoot certain scenes.
[5][4] Owen had four films released in 1965, including Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen and High Steel, a 15-minute colour documentary about the Canadian Caughnawaga First Nations peoples who worked on Manhattan skyscraper projects.
On July 31, 1965, in an interview with Dusty Vineberg of the Montreal Star, Owen attributed the success of High Steel to the fact that he wrote, directed, and edited it himself, calling this "a welding of three aspects of filmmaking that many young filmmakers increasingly insist is vital to integrity.
In order to be part of Trungpa’s inner circle, one had to practice complete discretion and keep all activities secret; Owen explained his long absences by telling people that he had to take time off to look after his children while his wife traveled.
)[25] Runner (1962)[15] Nobody Waved Goodbye (1964)[26] High Steel (1965)[27] Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Leonard Cohen (1965)[28] Notes for a Film About Donna and Gail (1966)[29] The Ernie Game (1967)[30]