Directing
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.
Leymo Mohammed, a young autistic Black man, reads a letter to his late mother, updating her on his struggles, achievements and dreams, as he comes to understand the world around him and his place in it.
"Body #319" is a 5-minute short film that follows the story of two characters, Charlie and Layman, as they come across an abandoned couch in the middle of the city. They begin to open up to each other about their deepest fears and insecurities. Charlie expresses her self-doubt about her ability to create something meaningful and her fear of not leaving a lasting legacy. Layman, on the other hand, has encountered a similar conundrum and has come to accept it as a fact of life.
An overworked employee, Steven, is stranded at a motel with his CEO’s unruly son, Tyler. While Steven tries to get them back on the road, Tyler's determined to push him to an emotional breaking point for his own pleasure.
In 1956, Dr. Anne Innis Dagg became the first Western researcher to study any mammal in the wild in Africa. She is still known as one of the foremost experts on giraffes.
Dawn breaks on the 17th of August, and Laksmi prepares for a celebration of the Indonesian independence day. As she embarks on her preparations, she experiences visitations by familiar faces from her past, reminding her of the folly of nostalgia in a post-colonial world.
