Born and raised in Prince George, content creator Sara Jones has received a $10,000 grant from the Telus STORYHIVE Voices program to create a new docu-series.
She first heard about the STORYHIVE program through a friend who’d also received a grant and hired her to help out with the project he was working on.
“He kind of encouraged me to apply for myself, because I mentioned that had a few stories that I wanted to share that didn't really have the means to do so,” said Jones.
Jones said she always knew she was Indigenous, but growing up didn’t really know what that meant culturally.
“My mom was actually a 60s Scoop baby and both of her biological parent were residential school survivors. So, there's a lot of these issues from indigenous perspectives that have impacted my family and that I never really thought about,” explained Jones.
“But now that I'm older, and I have more knowledge I can kind of question things more. I'm finding a lot more information about my family that I didn't really know about. It's kind of opening up a lot of doors for myself, like personal growth wise and just connecting with my culture.”
She said she wants to share the story of her family’s experience, her own personal growth, and the issues she faces as an Indigenous person in Prince George through the series.
“I really wanted to shed some light on current issues and talk about things like generational trauma, and how that impacted my life and a lot of people's lives and how those issues are still very real, and how a lot of us Indigenous individuals and communities are still dealing with these issues.”
She says she hopes her docu-series will help provide understanding and help people see these issues from an Indigenous perspective.
Jones said she will be creating 150 minutes of content which she plans to divide into five or six 30 minute episodes which will be available on TELUS Optik and other social media platforms in 2024.
She is currently in the phase of connecting with mentors from STORYHIVE and will begin production in September.
Jones said she hopes this opportunity will allow her to showcase what she is capable of as a filmmaker and it will hopefully open more doors for her to keep continuing on this career path.
Jones also adds that she encourages anyone who is interested in film making to pursue these opportunities.
“I always kind of felt like I didn't have enough professional skills to pursue a grant like this or even apply,” said Jones.
“I would just like to add that if anybody that is kind of in a situation where they are wanting to pursue or apply, I would encourage anybody to do so.”
