Kevin Tierney

Heritage Minutes, also known officially as Historica Minutes: History by the Minute, are a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history. They appear frequently on Canadian television and in cinemas before movies and are now also sold on DVD. The Minutes were first introduced on March 31, 1991 as part of a one-off heavily-promoted history quiz show hosted by Rex Murphy. The thirteen original short films were broken up and run between shows on CBC Television and CTV Network. The continued broadcast of the Minutes and the production of new ones was pioneered by Charles Bronfman's CRB Foundation, Canada Post Power Broadcasting, and the National Film Board. They were devised, developed and largely narrated by noted Canadian broadcaster Patrick Watson, while the producer of the series was Robert Guy Scully. In 2009 Historica merged with The Dominion Institute to become The Historica-Dominion Institute. While the foundations have not paid networks to air Minutes, they have made them freely available, and in the early years paid to have them run in cinemas across the country. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ruled that Heritage Minutes are an "on-going dramatic series" thus each minute counts as ninety-seconds of a station's Canadian content requirements.

A magazine show about culture and trends and how they can shape society in unexpected ways.

Lonely inhabitants at 28 Barbary Lane search for love and identity, turning to each other in the hope of finding happiness in San Francisco.

Nick Hart is a struggling American artist who lives amongst the expatriate community in 1920s Paris. He spends most of his time drinking and socializing in local café's and pestering gallery owner Libby Valentin to sell his paintings. He becomes involved in a plot by wealthy art patroness Nathalie de Ville to forge three paintings. This leads to several run-ins with American rubber magnate Bertram Stone, who happens to be married to Hart's ex-wife Rachel.

When the body of the executive of hockey Benoit Brisset is found on the billboard of the border of Quebec and Ontario, the jurisdiction of the crime is shared between the two police forces and detectives David Bouchard from Montreal and Martin Ward from Toronto are assigned to work together. With totally different styles, attitudes and languages.

The story of the great American showman and promoter.

Leon Bronstein is not your average Montreal West high school student. For one thing, none of his peers can claim to be the reincarnation of early 20th century Soviet iconoclast and Red Army hero, Leon Trotsky. When his father sends Leon to public school as punishment for starting a hunger strike at Papa's clothing factory, Leon quickly lends new meaning to the term 'student union', determined as he is to live out his pre-ordained destiny to the fullest and change the world.

Varian Fry rescues more than 2,000 artists from Nazi persecution during World War II.

The true life story of mafia boss Joesph Bonanno. The story spans from Bonanno's early beginings in Italy, to his conquests in America.

Four Anglo-Canadians and a New Yorker find themselves in a two-week long total French immersion program in the fictional, remote town of St-Isidore-du-Coeur-de-Jésus, tucked away somewhere in Northern Quebec. The place is perfect for total immersion since, according to the most recent census, 99% of the population is comprised of pure laine Quebeckers for the most part unilingual French, fervently nationalist, and all, save one person, named Tremblay.

Brazilian native Priscilla Paredes is intent on staying in Montreal, despite the expiration of her student visa. Out of desperation, she takes a job as an exotic dancer at the Elixir, a downtown strip club, where she meets Milagro, a headstrong Quebecoise and fellow dancer who, ironically, longs to move to Brazil. Priscilla is welcomed into Milagro's secret family life, and introduced to her young daughter Chloé; Milagro in turn teaches Priscilla how to fight for what she wants, for what she needs.

In 1969, a visiting geologist from Newfoundland arouses scandal in a small Irish village when he romances a local girl who’s destined for the convent.

A one-hour documentary that tells the story of how Standard Oil magnate Henry Flagler came to Florida in the late 1800s, built a railroad and hotel empire on the last American frontier, and launched a population boom that lasts a hundred years.

Engaging and light-hearted story of how a radical New Deal economic experiment during the Great Depression created an image of Key West in the popular culture and how that image became the island’s destiny. The film features interviews with famous contemporary writers, such as Gore Vidal and Russell Banks, and newly uncovered archival photos and footage, including rare Hemingway home movies.

One of Canada's most remarkable families works tirelessly to aid displaced persons and refugees during the Second World War.

Paul-Émile Borduas, Québec's voice of the Quiet Revolution, reflects on the impact of his writing and art in his Paris studio.

Two decades after Ezekiel Hart is denied his seat in the assembly, Louis-Joseph Papineau's government enacts religious tolerance laws in Lower Canada.