Jesse Wente: Enlightening Talks for Evolving Times
Enlightening Talks for Evolving Times
We live in times that sense the need for change. The flames of change are fanned by eminent, enlightening, inspiring personalities. Sudbury’s Place des Arts invites you to come and listen to outstanding public figures who have used the keys of art to open gateways to the future.
This prestigious series of talks presents voices that are vital for our times. Their creative works and innovative thinking can be catalysts for self-renewal through the sharing of mutually respected identities. Their presence at Sudbury’s Place des Arts promises enlightening moments for evolving times.
Please join us for this prestigious series of talks hosted by Dr. Simon Laflamme, a distinguished sociologist and philosopher.
Jesse Wente
“White people, you can depoliticize and retreat to a place where the rest of us can’t go.”
Anishinaabek, born and raised in Toronto and a member of Serpent River First Nation, he was a film critic on CBC Radio for more than 20 years before taking on key positions at the Toronto Film Festival, where his work garnered awards of recognition. In 2020, he was appointed board chair of the Canada Council for the Arts. His essay Unreconciled, a national bestseller, challenges Reconciliation as a flawed notion and espouses Truth as the basis for respectful relations with First Nations.
- Le Bistro will be serving brunch on Sunday as of 12:30 p.m. Get your talk & brunch combo ticket now!
- The talk starts at 2 p.m. It will be in English with simultaneous interpretation in French.
- The event will be followed by a book signing by the author at 3:15 p.m.
“I’m really looking forward to it. Sudbury is quite close to the community where my family comes from, so it’ll be great to be
—Jesse Wente on Up North, CBC Sudbury
in the region.”
Jesse Wente on Up North, CBC Sudbury
Jesse Wente was on Up North, CBC Sudbury yesterday afternoon to set the stage for his talk at Place des Arts on Sunday.
He chatted about family members going to residential schools near Sudbury, his ties to the region and what reconciliation can look like. Listen to his interview and get ready for Sunday.
Well-known as a film critic and broadcaster in Toronto and across Canada, Jesse was the first nationally syndicated Indigenous columnist for the CBC, covering film and pop culture for 20 local CBC Radio programs. He has also been a regular guest on CBC Newsworld’s News Morning and Weekend Edition and Q.
His first book is published Sept 2021, titled Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance, and he’s co-produced the award-winning screen adaptation of Thomas King’s best-selling book, The Inconvenient Indian.
His experience also includes that of being named the first Executive Director of the Indigenous Screen Office. He is an advocate for Aboriginal Arts, most notably on screen. He draws attention to the imagery used by Hollywood in portrayals of indigenous peoples and stresses the need for a culture to have influence on their own depiction. His pieces on The Revenant, Beyonce and sports mascots were among the most shared on CBC.ca.
In his previous role as the Director of Film Programmes at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Jesse oversaw New Releases, series and TIFF Cinematheque programming and scheduling. Some of his contributions to TIFF Bell Lightbox in programming included retrospectives on Roman Polanski, Paul Verhoeven, Ousmane Sembène, Oscar Micheaux, Studio Ghibli and Robert Altman. His first major curatorial project at TIFF Bell Lightbox was the landmark film programme First Peoples Cinema: 1500 Nations, One Tradition and its accompanying gallery exhibition, Home on Native Land. In the summer of 2013 he curated TOGA! The Reinvention of American Comedy, which brought cast and crew members of Animal House together for an onstage reunion.
In 2014, Jesse co-organized the Canadian premiere of the immensely popular travelling exhibition Stanley Kubrick. Prior to his appointment as Director of Film Programmes, Jesse served as one of the Canadian features programmers for the Toronto International Film Festival, and also programmed for the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Festival. Jesse has been featured in documentaries such Reel Injun, Nightmare Factory and Why Horror? Jesse served as president of Native Earth Performing Arts, Canada’s oldest Indigenous Performing Arts Company for a decade.
An outspoken advocate for Indigenous rights and First Nations, Metis and Inuit art, he has spoken at the International Forum of Indigenous Peoples, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Canadian Arts Summit, the Cultural Summit of the Americas, and numerous Universities and Colleges.
In 2017, Jesse was named the inaugural recipient of the Reelworld Film Festival’s Reel Activist Award, and in 2018 he received the Association of Ontario Health Centres’ Media Award. In 2022, Jesse was honoured as IABC/Toronto’s BMO Communicator of the Year (COTY), an award that recognizes excellence in strategic communication to deepen understanding, inspire action, and transform their community.
Simon Laflamme – Host of the Enlightening Talks for Evolving Times
Simon Laflamme studied philosophy and sociology. He has been teaching at Laurentian University (Sudbury, Ontario) since 1984 where he lectures in theory and methodology in the sociology program and the interdisciplinary Ph.D. in human studies.
He is one of the founders of the journal Nouvelles Perspectives en sciences sociales.
His research focuses on various issues of communication, economics and relationships between populations according to whether they constitute a minority or a majority.
He develops a relational theory at the macrological and micrological levels. At the macro level, he has created a trialectical model by which it is possible to analyze simultaneously, in a given society, the circulation of goods, ideas and people. At the micro level, by focusing on relational dimension of human being, he has been critical of phenomenological approaches and he has created, in 1995, the concept of emorationality.
