Adam Garnet Jones is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

filmmaker and screenwriter."Young, native and gay, filmmaker champions inclusion for all". '' Edmonton Journal'', March 24, 2007.

Personal life

Of Cree and Métis ancestry, Jones grew up in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

."Young filmmaker knows his subject matter well". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'', September 14, 2006. Battling

suicidal Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and subs ...

impulses in his early teens as he came to terms with being

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, he recovered a sense of purpose by making short films and videos and attending the Gulf Islands Film and Television School, and subsequently moved to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

to study film at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University). After graduating from Ryerson, his short film ''Cloudbreaker'' premiered at the

2006 Toronto International Film Festival The 31st Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 7 to September 16, 2006. Opening the festival was Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn's '' The Journals of Knud Rasmussen'', a film that "explores the history of the through the eyes of ...

, and he coordinated a youth film and video program for Toronto's

Inside Out Film and Video Festival Inside may refer to: * Insider, a member of any group of people of limited number and generally restricted access Film * ''Inside'' (1996 film), an American television film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Eric Stoltz * ''Inside'' (2002 f ...

Career

He subsequently made the short films ''A Small Thing'', ''Wave a Red Flag'' and ''Liar'', wrote an episode of the television series ''

Cashing In ''Cashing In'' is a Canadian television comedy-drama series, which aired on APTN from 2009 to 2014. Set in the fictional First Nations community of Stonewalker, the series revolved around the staff and customers of an indigenous-owned casino. T ...

'', and was a writer and story editor on the television series ''

Mohawk Girls ''Mohawk Girls'' is a 2005 documentary film by Tracey Deer about the experiences of adolescent girls growing up on the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake, across the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal, Quebec. Deer, who was born and raised in Kahnawake, f ...

''. His feature film debut, '' Fire Song'', premiered at the

2015 Toronto International Film Festival The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's '' Demolition'' starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Na ...

. ''Fire Song'' went on to pick up Audience Choice awards at four film festivals, including the

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world's largest Indigenous film and media arts festival, held annually in Toronto in the month of October. The festival focuses on the film, video, radio, and new media work of Indigenous, Abori ...

. Jones' second film, ''

Great Great Great ''Great Great Great'' is a Canadian drama film, directed by Adam Garnet Jones and released in 2017. The film stars Sarah Kolasky as Lauren, a woman who begins having an affair when she decides that her five-year relationship with Tom (Dan Beirn ...

'', premiered at the Canadian Filmmakers' Festival in March 2017, where it won three of the festival's top awards for Best Feature, Best Screenplay and Best Performance. ''Great Great Great'' was released theatrically that same year. At the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018, Jones and Sarah Kolasky received a nomination for

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...

. In 2018 he published his first

young adult novel Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

, an adaptation of ''Fire Song''. The novel was a finalist for the Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Literature. In 2019, the novelization of ''Fire Song'' was chosen as the Bronze Medalist for Young Adult Fiction at the

Independent Publisher Book Awards The Independent Publisher Book Awards, also styled the IPPY Awards, are a set of annual book awards for independently published titles. They are the longest-running unaffiliated contest open exclusively to independent presses. The IPPY Awards ar ...

. He also works for the

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN, stylized aptn) is a Canadian specialty channel. Established in 1992 and maintained by governmental funding to broadcast in Canada's northern territories, APTN acquired a national broadcast licen ...

as director of television content and special events.Charles Lefebvre
"In-person National Indigenous People’s Day celebrations return to Winnipeg this weekend"
CTV News Winnipeg, June 16, 2022.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Adam Garnet Film directors from Alberta Canadian television writers First Nations filmmakers Canadian LGBT film directors Canadian LGBT screenwriters LGBT First Nations people Canadian gay writers Cree people Writers from Alberta Writers from British Columbia Toronto Metropolitan University alumni Living people First Nations screenwriters 21st-century Canadian novelists Canadian male novelists Canadian writers of young adult literature First Nations novelists Place of birth missing (living people) Canadian LGBT novelists Film directors from British Columbia 21st-century First Nations writers Canadian male screenwriters 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Canadian male television writers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Canadian LGBT people Gay screenwriters Gay novelists