Haida Gwaii, B.C.-based Urban Rez Productions has started work on its latest documentary series, 13 Indigenous Artists. 

Written, directed and produced by Jeff Bear, and produced alongside Marianne Jones, the 13 x 30-minute series profiles Metis, First Nations and Inuit artists, shining a light on how they create art and the issues they face today.

“We’re going through the whole spectrum of visual culture in the Indigenous world,” Bear told Playback Daily. “[We want] to capture what an artist is trying to accomplish in their art practice, in their life, and what inspired them so that young Indigenous kids these days can find inspiration as well.”

The series is produced for APTN, with funding from the Canada Media Fund. Filming begins in Montreal on Nov. 12, with production taking place across Canada over the next six months. 13 Indigenous Artists is slated to air on APTN’s 2019 winter schedule. It will be filmed in two languages: English and the Maliseet language and will be accompanied by an interactive website. 

Urban Rez is the prodco behind the recent docuseries Samaqan: Water Stories, which ran for four season on APTN until 2014. It also produced Storytellers in Motion, which profiled Indigenous filmmakers including Alanis Obomsawin and Jennifer Podemski, and Ravens and Eagles, which examined Haida art.