The latest version of Heritage Minutes is now Canada wide, with a little bit of Ladner helping to tell the story of a Canadian artist who painted the aftermath of the First World War.
The minute-long episode of the long-running series of snippets about Canadian history tells the story of Mary Riter Hamilton, who visited the battlefields of northern France to paint and capture the horror of the struggle that ended in November 1918.
While the set depicts a deserted battleground somewhere in Europe, it was shot in a farm field on Westham Island, in Delta.
Production crews showed up in August and spent a few days capturing film of Megan Follows (Anne of Green Gables) portraying Hamilton in the historical vignette.
During the First World War, Hamilton petitioned the Canadian War Memorials Fund to send her to the front lines as a war artist, but was denied because she was a woman, said Historica Canada which produces Heritage Minutes.
After the armistice, Hamilton received a commission from the Amputation Club of British Columbia (now the War Amps) to paint battlefield landscapes.
Hamilton arrived in France in the spring of 1919, and went on to create 350 works by 1922.
Her health suffered due to poor living conditions and although her paintings were successful in Europe, they did not receive the same reception in Canada.
She donated most of her paintings, and died on April 5, 1954, in poverty, Historica Canada said.
One of her paintings, Trenches on the Somme, was featured by Canada Post in 2020, on one of its stamps.
The battlefield set also served for another Heritage Minute featuring legally blind actor Bruce Horak (of Star Trek fame) portraying Edwin Baker. Baker was a Canadian soldier who lost his sight in battle and who then went on to help found the Canadian Institute for the Blind.
The episode about the artist was shot in August but just released Oct. 29, in time for this year’s Remembrance Day ceremonies on Nov. 11.
The videos are on television as well as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
“I cannot talk. I can only paint,” said Hamilton.
