Jessica Brown is a producer, director and screenwriter based in St. John’s, NL, whose work involves both documentary and fiction elements for TV and film. In addition to her artistic practice, Brown sits on the Board of Directors for the Atlantic division of the Documentary Organization of Canada, where she represents Newfoundland and Labrador.
Brown got her start in the industry in 2021 through a training program on the set of police procedural series Hudson and Rex (2019–present), which introduced her to the different elements of the show as well as the many roles involved in the film industry. “TV is such a well oiled machine,” she says about the learning. “My vision was to direct, to produce…I just kept working towards that goal.” [1] Later in 2021, Brown worked on short documentary Framed Spirit Song (2021), about the Spirit Song Festival, which premiered at the 2022 St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival. Brown also collaborated with independent horror film company Grind Mind Inc. to create Screamer Cleaners (2021), which Brown wrote. The film was awarded “Best Writing” at the 2022 Nickel Film Festival.
In 2022 Brown secured funding to develop TV series Ujarak (in development), a murder mystery drama based in Labrador with themes of intergenerational trauma and Indigenous-specific issues, for which she will serve as producer and lead screenwriter. Brown has come to enjoy the screenwriting aspect best, saying “I can almost visualize it as I write scenes down.” The series spurred the creation of Brown’s production company Ujarak Media Inc., formed to facilitate the series, as well as her non-profit, the Northern Film Initiative (NFI), developed to enhance mentorship and film training for Indigenous creators. “I was having trouble finding Inuit talent and crew to join me [on Ujarak],” she says about NFI’s creation. “I realized the gap that exists for Indigenous people working in film and TV,” and wanted to provide mentorship opportunities for other Indigenous creatives in the industry. Mentorship has been a key aspect to Brown’s artistic career; longtime mentor Brad Gover joined Brown at Ujarak Media, and Jennifer Podemski also became a major influence after Brown met her during the Shine Network Institute Program Accelerator in 2022.
Simultaneously with Ujarak, Brown is developing Here to Stay, a documentary series she will produce and co-direct with Gover, which focuses on the urban Indigenous population in St. John’s, highlighting the lives of different community members. Brown was a finalist at the 2023 CBC Pitch Competition in Halifax, NS, with her pitch for the show, which will air on Bell Media’s Fibe TV 1 in 2023. She also won the Women in Film and Television - Atlantic’s 2023 Emerging Talent Award, as well as Arts NL’s 2023 Emerging Artist Award.
Beyond the two TV series and her work on NFI, Brown already has her eyes on the rest of the country, looking to find a broadcaster for
Ujarak and grow her business through partnerships that will maintain her principles of community engaged growth while allowing her to move outside St. John’s. “I just focus on the day ahead of me,” Brown says about the many projects she has on the go. A major goal is to train people from the Labrador community, so that when
Ujarak is shot there the crew will be made up of locals, rather than flying people in.
This Profile was made possible through support from RBC Emerging Artists.