Director, Writer and Producer at AFIN

Biography

Jason Brennan is a member of the First Nations community of Kitigan Zibi. Born to an Algonquin father and a Quebecers mother, Jason was fortunate to see the best of both worlds and heritages. His journey into the world of television production began in 2002 holding different production positions in Ottawa and Montreal. In 2004, he began directing and writing for Hockey Goals, a series featured on the Aboriginal People Television Network. In 2006, Jason founded Nish Media, a production company that would focus on showing positive stories and positive programming about Indigenous Peoples. In the first few years, Nish Media would produce such television series as La piqure, The Journey, Pursuing the flame and Mouki for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. In addition, Nish Media has collaborated with reputable Canadian broadcasters such as CBC, TV5, RDI, Historia, Canal D. In 2012 Hit The Ice began its first season with Jason as writer, director and producer. The television series continues to draw audiences and just saw its 7th season go into production in 2018. Nish Media has been nominated for various awards and distinctions such as multiple Banff World Media Rockie Awards, a Prix Gémeaux, A Gemini Award and Golden Sheaf Award at Yorkton as well as a Best Sports Program nomination at the World Sports Television and film Festival in Milan. In 2011, Nish Media won a Prix Gémeaux for the film Last Call Indian. In 2015, Nish Media produced and released its first feature film in Quebec theatres. The film “LE DEP”, written and directed by Sonia Bonspille Boileau, was made possible due to Telefilm Canada’s micro-budget program. The small film which was shot over a period of ten days and for a budget of 225,000$ was selected in some of the world’s top film festivals such as the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the Vancouver Film Festival, the Raindance Film Festival where it is selected as a best first feature nominee and the American Indian Film Festival where it was selected as one of the nominees for best feature film. Nish Media and Jason produced last year a new feature film entitled Rustic Oracle, which was presented at the VIFF festival and won a few awards (Leo Awards, WIDC...). Recently, Jason decided to go back to directing with a new feature film: L'Inhumain. The movie is the first French-speaking indigenous genre film.