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After more than a decade into his career as a filmmaker, Adam Garnet Jones found his calling on the other side of the table as a content executive at APTN.

“I started out thinking that I really wanted to be the writer and the voice, because that’s what I imagined it was to be an artist and a creative person, and over the years I’ve realized the thing that actually gives me the most [energy] creatively is feeling like I’m a helper,” Jones tells Playback Daily.

As director of TV content and special events, Jones, who is Cree-Métis from Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton), oversees the overall programming strategy for the Indigenous-owned network.

Jones says when he first joined in 2021, he helped APTN transform its team structure, which previously had executives working across all genres in various regions rather than specializing in certain types of programming.

“[Jones] knows the type of content that resonates with viewers and he’s helping us ensure that we commission and greenlight that content,” says Mike Omelus, APTN’s executive director of content and strategy. “At the same time, he’s an incredible discoverer of new Indigenous storytellers. It’s a huge job and he does it with amazing grace, compassion, knowledge and understanding. He really brings his A-game to the operation every single day.”

While building out the team, Jones says he was heavily involved in one of APTN’s largest productions at the time, Little Bird.

“I was not the executive on that project, but I was acting a bit like it in order to represent APTN really well as a partner to Crave, but also model to the executives what I would hope for them to grow into as production executives,” he says.

Little Bird co-creator and showrunner Jennifer Podemski says working with Jones on the series was “truly a gift,” adding that his notes on the creative “were often such a joy to read, which made the whole process feel more meaningful.”

The two had previously worked together on the 2015 film Fire Song, which was written and directed by Jones and featured Podemski as one of the leads. “Adam knows story and character and his capacity to be generous and critical at the same time is very unique,” says Podemski.

Omelus similarly praised his critiques as eloquent, thoughtful and “right on target.”

That approach is something Jones takes to heart. He says there’s a tendency for executives at Canadian funding agencies and broadcasters to be nice, but “it’s easy to feel smothered by the niceness when you’re not getting a yes.”

“People are generally being kind, but not actually helping you,” he adds.

In the case of APTN, Jones says the network would try to champion Indigenous producers by giving them as much creative freedom as possible, but that meant largely staying hands-off creatively.

“I think producers felt like they were alone sometimes when APTN was their broadcaster because they weren’t getting creative feedback on what they were bringing to us,” says Jones. “We were giving producers shows and supporting them, but producers didn’t always feel like we were riding beside them.”

While much of Jones’s role at APTN is looking at the big picture for its strategy, he says he’s “most comfortable in the world of ideas.”

“As a writer, I understand that core spark of inspiration or excitement that drives people through to the end of production, through all of the nightmares of financing and casting and logistics … all of that stuff is carried through by the spark of that idea,” he says.

That creative drive had initially led him down the path of being a writer and director, starting back in 2006 with his short film Cloudbreaker. Despite having all the markers of success, including a Canadian Screen Award for screenwriting in 2018 for the feature Great Great Great with co-writer Sarah Kolasky, Jones says he felt “sad and tired.”

“I think I’m built for the creative work, but I’m not actually built for that kind of entrepreneurial hassle,” he says.

In 2018, an opportunity came up to make a real difference for Indigenous producers and creatives. Telefilm Canada had committed $4 million annually for Indigenous projects, but they needed someone to help administer the program. Initially he was working with them as part of an advisory group, but when Telefilm struggled to find an administrator who met their requirements, he put his hat in the ring.

“An opportunity was opening up for our communities within Telefilm, and I felt like I saw that door closing,” says Jones. “At the same time, I was feeling like I didn’t have energy for my own creative work in the same way that I did. [But I had] all the energy in the world to do this.”

When the chance to head up content at APTN arrived in 2021, Jones says he was eager to bring that creative energy to an Indigenous broadcaster.

Since then, he’s continued to help oversee APTN’s transformation. The channel’s partnerships have grown beyond Little Bird to include the limited series Bones of Crows with CBC and the Nunavut-shot comedy North of North with CBC and Netflix, which he says is “unbelievably colourful, energetic and fun,” and will show audiences the Arctic in a completely new light.

“He has worked very, very hard to build and strengthen relationships with various Indigenous producers as well as the key broadcast partners,” says Omelus. “The network has triggered record levels of production, as well as higher quality productions, and Adam is largely responsible for making that happen.”

He is also overseeing a transformation of APTN’s programming strategy with the introduction of the channel APTN Languages. Formerly separated into four regional feeds, APTN was given the greenlight from the CRTC to consolidate into two feeds – one for English- and French-language content and another dedicated to Indigenous languages.

Jones says the move has allowed APTN to refocus efforts across the new feeds. In the case of APTN Languages, since the mandate is language-first, they can look at instructional shows and lower-budget programs showcasing Elders speaking in their languages. Whereas for APTN, they are now expanding into reality and lifestyle.

Jones says the team isn’t holding back on their ideas, telling producers that they’re looking for the “trashiest and most scandalous version” of an Indigenous-led reality or lifestyle show they can pitch.

He has also increased APTN’s collaboration with CBC/Radio-Canada for its annual broadcast, Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, every Sept. 30. The broadcasters signed a memorandum of understanding this year with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Jones says the agreement will see the groups share resources and funding, including more creative producing support from CBC, on top of the funding provided by Canadian Heritage.

“What I like about Adam is he’s always [asking], ‘how can we do what we do better?’ He’s someone who is always trying to raise the bar,” says Omelus.

Image courtesy of Adam Garnet Jones