Rock Demers

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.

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To amuse themselves during the winter school break, the kids in a small village decide to have a massive snowball fight. Luke and Sophie, both 11 years old, become the leaders of the opposing sides. Sophie and her cohort defend an elaborate snow fort against the assault of Luke’s horde. Whichever side occupies the fort at the end of the winter break, wins. But what starts out as pure youthful fun and enthusiasm deteriorates into a more serious conflict. Joy is restored when all the children decide to attack the fort rather than each other and happily destroy every last bit of the snow fort.

5000 years ago, in India, men started to capture and tame elephants for war, parades and worship. Still today, the young Makbul grows up in daily contact with the wild and domesticated elephants that live in the forest around his native village in southern India. Over the objections of his mother, Makbul follows in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, going deep into the forest to learn the age-old profession of the mahout, or elephant handler in the government's employ. When an elephant calf named Vikrama is born, the animal is placed under Makbul's care.

Jo, a talented young art student from Quebec, attracts the attention of a mysterious European art dealer who buys her drawings. When she later learns that the works are being sold as newly discovered drawings by Vincent van Gogh, she sets out to uncover the truth—traveling first to Amsterdam and ultimately to 19th-century Arles to confront the painter himself.

Regína is 10 years old. Her mother, Margrét, works at a home for the elderly and her father is dead. The story begins one sunny summer morning when kids are leaving for the summer camp and Regína has been told she cannot go. While alone at home killing time she discovers her gift, which is hypnotizing singing. Her friend Pétur shows his talent for finding words that rhyme and together they increase the power of singing.

While visiting their grandparents in the Québec countryside, two children enter a fantasy kingdom and are confronted by evil forces.

Just like every other summer, the children of two camp-sites play "war". But, this summer it takes an interesting turn.

The first part of the block will be dedicated to the monograph Vojtěch Jasný: The Film Poet in Exile (2020) authored by the film historian Jiří Voráč. The monograph is centered on the legendary director’s life and career after his emigration to Western Europe and to the US after 1968, which have so far received little attention. In exile, Jasný established himself as a film director (he authored over thirty cinema and TV films and documentaries), stage director, photographer, and film studies lecturer. The first part will be followed by the screening of Jasný’s documentary Why Havel? co-produced by himself and Miloš Forman in Canada and Czechoslovakia in 1991. As remarkable as this reflection of the paradoxical transformation of a dissident into a president in the carnival-like atmosphere of the euphoric post-revolution period with the first question marks already appearing may be, it did not meet the expectations of the head of state.

When the joker Tommy Tricker plays some practical jokes on some of his friends, his best friend Ralph, a stamp collector, discovers the secret of "stamp travel" to make him travel around the world on a stamp to bring back the mysterious Charles Merriweather, who never returned on a stamp for 75 years.

This award-winning film by André Melançon -- set on a ranch on the pampas of Argentina -- tells the story of three children spending a summer with their grandfather. The youngest, Felipe, makes friends with a puppy; his older brother, Daniel, breaks and train his first horse; their 13-year-old sister, Laura, struggles with the transition between childhood and growing up. The kids find it difficult to adapt to their proud and stubborn grandfather, and he learns that he has to change his ways and try to understand them as they all experience the joys and sorrows of growing up and growing old. ~ Alice Duncan, Rovi

A friendless youngster (Michael Caloz) asks a cat goddess to help his feline friend.

A young girl is orphaned when her nurturing grandmother enters a nursing home. She is sent to live with her Bach-obsessed uncle, an organist preparing for an important recital.

Peanut butter is the secret ingredient for magic potions made by two friendly ghosts. Eleven-year-old Michael loses all of his hair when he gets a fright and uses the potion to get his hair back, but too much peanut butter causes things to get a bit hairy.

Two girl pen pals and a simple summer in the country. They befriend a woman rumored to be a witch, and end up as amateur detectives when her pet pig is stolen.

A look at the life, work and importance of Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman (1910-89), a genius of world cinema, a wizard of special effects, revealing his sources of inspiration and his revolutionary filming techniques.

Nicolas loves baseball. Every day during vacation he and his friends meet at the town’s old baseball field to play their favourite game... Until one infamous day at the start of summer when Nicolas discovers that the gates to the field have been locked and that old boards and assorted junk are strewn across what used to be the baseball diamond. It seems the town council has decided to use the grounds as a dump. The kids are outraged.They decide to contest this decision, to defend their territory.

As the Christmas holidays begin, a group of 10 war-obsessed kids have a wave of inspiration: What if they spend the next two weeks engaged in a simulated war, armed only with shields, wooden swords, snowballs, and a fierce sense of competition? With a bounty chest waiting for the winners, the two sides gradually grow in size, and the war grows in importance, taking over all aspects of their lives.

A petite Romanian gymnast trains with her teammates for what she hopes will be Olympic perfection.

Little Rehor isn't allowed to play with the other boys. His only friend is the girl next door, Luci. Rehor's father is doctor on a boat and he has sent Rehor a package with butterfly larvae. When they hatch he discover a fairy who can do magic tricks.