The Arctic-set comedy North of North has fast-tracked the development of a thriving screen industry in Nunavut.

The series is a co-commission from CBC and Netflix in association with APTN, created by Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril. It’s produced by the duo’s Iqaluit-based Red Marrow Media and Miranda de Pencier’s Toronto-based Northwood Entertainment and premieres in Canada on CBC and APTN on Tuesday (Jan. 7). The series will launch globally on Netflix in spring.

Producing a premium series in Iqaluit required a “significant investment” across the board. Arnaquq-Baril tells Playback it was the largest production budget the two had worked with. (The exact budget was not disclosed.)

It also required building the territory’s first production studio. Arnaquq-Baril says they secured a temporary production hub for season one of North of North, but the City of Iqaluit said they wouldn’t be able to use the space for additional seasons. “We had no choice but to build a studio,” she says. “What network is going to want to invest in a show that can only go one season?”

The first domino fell in 2023 when the Indigenous Screen Office put up $1 million to help build the studio, which Arnaquq-Baril describes as a “game changer” for Red Marrow. The company secured additional funding from the Government of Nunavut and Iqaluit entrepreneur Cody Dean. The funding, combined with a loan, brought in a total budget of $4.1 million to build the studio, which they co-own.

Construction is still underway, with an opening date to be announced later, so a potential season two of North of North is currently the only project slated to use the facility, but Arnaquq-Baril says they’ve seen interest from other projects currently in development.

North of North itself took years to develop. The duo started working on the concept in 2019, about a young Inuk mother (played by Anne Lambe) who inadvertently blows up her life when she starts to feel suffocated in her marriage. They brought it to CBC in 2020 after another series in development wasn’t picked up. “We were so appreciative that they stuck with us and gave us another chance,” says Arnaquq-Baril.

An early partner on the comedy was de Pencier, a frequent collaborator who worked with them on The Grizzlies (2018) and the short film Throat Song (2013). “She’s amazing at challenging us to think as big as we can,” says Aglok MacDonald.

While CBC was the first to come on board, it was clear a series of this scope required multiple partners. Enter APTN and Netflix.

All three partners brought something to the table creatively, says Arnaquq-Baril. “APTN knows the community better than the other networks do and has our backs. CBC made sure our show is speaking to a Canadian audience. With Netflix, we’re also speaking to the entire world … they operate on a much larger scale than we’ve ever worked on. We learned a lot working with them, the attention to detail on everything.”

For their partners, the sentiment is mutual.

“When we first met with Stacey, Alethea and Miranda to hear about their show, they made us laugh so hard that we cried,” said Danielle Woodrow and Tara Woodbury, directors, content at Netflix Canada, in a statement to Playback. “We knew from that moment that we had to partner creatively with them and invest in this project.”

Trish Williams, executive director, scripted content at CBC, said the series is “vibrant, funny and joyful,” adding that the ability to shoot the film in the North was important to the pubcaster.

“Stacey and Alethea have drawn from their own personal experiences to create this amazing show in a unique setting – one that very few people across the country, let alone around the world have a real understanding of – that offers universally relatable themes,” she said.

For APTN, it was an opportunity to invest in Aglok MacDonald and Arnaquq-Baril’s vision and help contribute to Nunavut’s production sector. “The future is bright for storytelling in the North, and we are thrilled to continue to help pave the way,” said Adam Garnet Jones, APTN’s director of TV content and special events.

The capacity-building goes beyond a physical studio. Aglok MacDonald and Arnaquq-Baril were intentional about providing training opportunities on set, building it into the budget for the series from the start.

Aglok MacDonald says all of her scripted and unscripted productions have provided training opportunities, but with one-off films or shorts, people were coming and going within that entry-level threshold. She noticed a change with the Inuktitut-language comedy Qanurli?, which she co-created, directed and produced.

“There was a sense of how much television has a role to play in maintaining an industry, especially when you’re an [emerging] one, in terms of the consistency of work, opportunity for promotion and opportunity to train and level up,” she says. “That was something that we thought about very critically when we knew we were going to be able to make this show.”

They hired locals as background performers, crew members and support staff, and people from all across Nunavut came to set to provide clothing and jewelry for the cast’s wardrobe.

“In our first season we learned what didn’t work and we really hope to continue shaping it in future seasons so that we can develop those skills and develop people who want to work in the industry,” says Aglok MacDonald. “[We want to] continue to see them rise and be promoted, then make their own work and hopefully someday me and Alethea will be their executive producers and we can support their vision.”

Photo by Jasper Savage, courtesy of CBC

This story originally appeared in Playback‘s 2024 Winter issue