Jesse Wente appointed director of Canada's new Indigenous Screen Office

The first director of Canada's new Indigenous Screen Office will be Jesse Wente, it was announced Wednesday.

The purpose of theIndigenous Screen Office is to support the development, production and marketing of Indigenous screen content and storytelling in Canada.

Wente, who is Ojibwefrom the Serpent River First Nation in Ontario, has worked as a culture columnist with CBCRadio since 1996. Hehas been the director of film programmesat the TIFF Bell Lightboxand serves on the boards of the Canada Council of the Arts andthe Toronto Arts Council and was a previous board member for the imagineNATIVEFilm and Media Arts Festival.

He saidthis opportunity is what his career and life have been leading up to until this point.

"Ithink that's in line with it being time for me personally to take on this sort of challenge, and that I'm in the best position to use my experience to create the most impact and that's what I'm looking to do."

Wentewill also be tasked with developing long-term strategies for supporting and fostering Indigenous screen culture in Canada.

The Indigenous Screen Office is sure to evolve as Wentegets working, but he said he sees its role asan office of advocacy for Indigenous creators and stories on screenin Canada and around the world.

The Indigenous Screen office for Canada is a new initiative that was created this past June as a collaboration with Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada, the Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Media Producers Association, and the National Film Board of Canada.

Bell Media, the Harold Greenberg Fund and VICE Studio Canada are also associated partners.

"It's an enormously positive indication of real movement and a desire for real change within our industry," said Wente.

He said his goal is for the office to create cultural change "which will extend not just beyond the stories we tell but to the real life issues that our communities face, to the relationship between non-Indigenous peopleshere on Turtle Island and First Nations, Mtisand Inuit peoples."