The Lucy Molnar Lecture Series Presents 'Using Your Voice: Authenticity in Storytelling'

The Lucy Molnar Wing Lecture Series in the School of Image Arts at The Creative School provides a rare glimpse into the lives and careers of working filmmakers, photographers and new media producers who have developed a name for themselves in the industry. 

In this exclusive talk, award-winning and best-selling author Jesse Wente will look at the importance of authentic voice in storytelling through the lens of film history and contemporary cinema. Using his years of experience as a film and culture critic, festival programmer and arts leader, Wente will look at how authenticity has become a central factor for enduring storytelling in the modern age of mass media.

Jesse Wente is a husband and father, as well as a writer, broadcaster, speaker and arts administrator. 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 is best known for more than two decades spent as a columnist for CBC Radio’s Metro Morning. 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. Jesse received the Arbor Award from the University of Toronto in 2021 for his volunteer contributions and was recently appointed a Senior Fellow of Massey College. His first book “Unreconciled: Family, Truth and Indigenous Resistance” is a national bestseller and was picked as one of best books of 2021 by Chapters-Indigo, Apple Books and The Globe and Mail. Jesse recently won the Kobo Emerging Writers Prize in Non-Fiction.

Toronto is in the 'Dish With One Spoon Territory’.  The Dish With One Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect.

The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University

The Creative School is a dynamic faculty that is making a difference in new, unexplored ways. Made up of Canada’s top professional schools and transdisciplinary hubs in media, communication, design and cultural industries, The Creative School offers students an unparalleled global experience in the heart of downtown Toronto.