The Canadian government is throwing all sorts of money at projects commemorating the War of 1812 this year, including two brand new Heritage Minutes featuring lesser known stories about the war. New Heritage Minutes, yay! Better yet, they held a sneak preview screening of the minutes last night, so I went with Audrey despite my general aversion to doing anything that happens on College St. Not only did they screen the top older Heritage Minutes as voted by Canadians, but they also gave out t-shirts featuring various War of 1812 Canadian heroes (Isaac Brock, represent!) and a DVD* containing all sixty-four previous minutes. Double yay!
Somewhat hilariously, they had a Q&A with the director, writers, and actors afterwards. Ye Olde Standard Q&A questions were asked, which was entertaining given that they were speaking about a piece of work that was literally a minute long. At Q&As you always here filmmakers talking about how inspired by X or Y they were, blah blah, but I think this is the first time I’ve ever really and truly believed a filmmaker talking about how inspired they were, in this case, by the previous Heritage Minutes because literally no one in Canada does not love these.
I think my favourite is a bit of a toss up, but today I’ll go with the one on the origin of Canada’s name, as I think the priest does a good job of embodying the douchiness of a colonizer who thinks he knows better than everyone else.
They don’t show these on TV very much anymore, but the new minute on Richard Pierpoint is out this year while the second on John Norton and the Grand River Warriors at Queenston Heights is out next year.
* Not going to lie, I looked into buying this online a few months ago but balked at spending $27 for it. I complained about this to Audrey before the screening started, so when we were handed our swag bags upon leaving she said “Oh my god, you are going to be so happy!”
I am still jealous and upset about this