In his keynote, Jesse Wente will address the decades of community organizing that led to the creation of the Indigenous Screen Office, on the crucial role the ISO plays for Indigenous creators in Canada and around the world, and on narrative sovereignty as the cornerstone of all his work. This talk will draw out strategies for political and community organizing, and imagine what utopian networks of the future will entail.
Biography (submitted by the speaker):
Jesse Wente is a husband and father, as well as an award-winning writer and speaker. Born and raised in Toronto, his family comes from Chicago and Genaabaajing Anishinaabek and he is an off-reserve member of the Serpent River First Nation. Jesse spent more than two decades as a columnist for CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, and a decade with the Toronto International Film Festival as a curator. In 2018, Jesse was named the founding director of the Indigenous Screen Office and in summer 2020 he was appointed Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts. His first book Unreconciled: Family, Truth and Indigenous Resistance is a national bestseller.
In his keynote, Jesse Wente will address the decades of community organizing that led to the creation of the Indigenous Screen Office, on the crucial role the ISO plays for Indigenous creators in Canada and around the world, and on narrative sovereignty as the cornerstone of all his work. This talk will draw out strategies for political and community organizing, and imagine what utopian networks of the future will entail.
Biography (submitted by the speaker):
Jesse Wente is a husband and father, as well as an award-winning writer and speaker. Born and raised in Toronto, his family comes from Chicago and Genaabaajing Anishinaabek and he is an off-reserve member of the Serpent River First Nation. Jesse spent more than two decades as a columnist for CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, and a decade with the Toronto International Film Festival as a curator. In 2018, Jesse was named the founding director of the Indigenous Screen Office and in summer 2020 he was appointed Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts. His first book Unreconciled: Family, Truth and Indigenous Resistance is a national bestseller.