Bestselling Author Jesse Wente to Introduce MacDowell Medalist Alanis Obomsawin

We are honored to announce that award-winning speaker and bestselling author Jesse Wente will be introducing filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin as the 63rd MacDowell Medalist on Medal Day at MacDowell on July 23. The self-described “Ojibwe dude” was born and raised in Toronto into a family hailing from Chicago and Genaabaajing Anishinaabek and is an off-reserve member of the Serpent River First Nation.

The founding director of the Indigenous Screen Office and Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, Wente has curated film programs that have included Obomsawin’s works, and on Medal Day will offer unique insight into her contributions to American and Canadian culture. "Alanis is the matriarch of Indigenous cinema. The Grand Dame of documentaries,” he says. “She is one of the most important filmmakers to ever work in what is currently called Canada. Her work has transformed a nation’s understanding of itself and she has inspired generations of Indigenous people to pursue telling our stories."

Best known for more than two decades as a critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio’s “Metro Morning,” where he reported on film and pop culture, Wente also spent a decade with the Toronto International Film Festival as a curator, including leading the film programming at the expansive Tiff Bell Lightbox cultural center in Toronto.

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. Last year, Wente won the Kobo Emerging Writers Prize in Non-Fiction and was named the Communicator of the Year for 2022 by the International Association of Business Communicators. He speaks on matters of diversity and inclusion, advocating for the arts and drawing attention to the imagery used by Hollywood in portrayals of Indigenous peoples, stressing the need for communities to have agency in determining their own depictions in media. For his efforts showcasing the work of Indigenous filmmakers, the University of Toronto awarded him an Arbor Award in 2021, their highest honor for volunteer service, and he was recently appointed a Senior Fellow of Massey College at the University.