Heritage Minutes are a series of part film shorts, part Public Service Announcement describing moments in Canadian history. It is considered a successor of the Canada Vignettes of the 1970s, but unlike the Canada Vignettes commissioned by the National Film Board of Canada, this was produced by Historica Canada, who also maintains the Canadian Encyclopedia online. The short film series was first part of a one-off quiz series by Wayne Rostad. While first distributed to schools, they later showed up on television, radio, and in theaters before feature films. At first produced from 1991 to 1997, more Heritage Minutes were commissioned in 2012. The selection of films were as varied in content, with celebratory events like Terry Fox's run to infamous, controversial and tragic events such as the Halifax Explosion, the story of Chanie Wenjack, Louis Riel, etc.
Unsurpisingly, some of Canada's famous actors and artists got their start on the Heritage Minutes.
Most of the films can now be accessed to their Youtube channel.
List of some of the more notable short films, in no particular order:
- Halifax Explosion: a dramatization of the 1917 Halifax Explosion.
- Jennie Trout: detailing the story of the first Canadian women admitted to medical college, led by Jennie Trout. Also known for one scene where Jennie angrily rips a censored human anatomy chart.
- Agnes MacPhail: about the first female member of Parliament. Known for MacPhail's angry line, "IS THIS 'NORMAL'?!"
- Richard Pierpoint: story of a former slave who tried to enlist during the War of 1812 but failed; nevertheless, he decided to raise his own volunteer unit.
- Wilder Penfield: about a surgeon in Montreal in the 1930s who invented a radical technique to detect the causes of seizures by stimulating the surface of a conscious patient's brain. Known for the tagline Dr. Penfield, I can smell burnt toast! (which has led to a misconception that smelling burnt toast specifically is a common symptom of epilepsy).
- Basketball: set in America, obviously, but is included because of James Naismith, a Canadian professor who first created Basketball.
- Superman: a short detailing the early careet of the other half of the creator duo of Superman, Toronto-born Joe Shuster.
- Laura Secord: a story of Laura Secord, a woman who was a hero of War of 1812; she traveled 20 miles by foot to warn the British commander there that an American attack is imminent.
- Jackie Robinson: about Jackie Robinson's time with the Montreal Royals, a minor league baseball team, and about the breaking of the color barrier in baseball.
- Louis Riel: about Louis Riel, the leader of the Metis in Manitoba, and his eventual execution for charges of treason.
- Sam Steele: about the legendary Mountie maintaining order during the Klondike Gold Rush by preventing an American prospector from crossing into Canada with his guns and gambling gear. Known for the extremely unsubtle Present-Day Past anachronism of "men don't wear pistols in Canada".
