Lucy Maud Montgomery — and P.E.I. — to be featured in Heritage Minute
Lucy Maud Montgomery will finally be making her debut on Heritage Minutes.
The series of sixty-second short films illustrate an important moment in Canadian history.
P.E.I. has been featured twice: the memorable Rural Teacher and the story of the Charlottetown Conference with Sir John A. Macdonald.
Davida Aronovitch, the manager of Heritage Minutes, says Montgomery's Minute will show a personal side of the Anne of Green Gables author.
"I think a lot of Canadians know that L.M. Montgomery wrote Anne of Green Gables, and that she shaped Anne after her own dreams and experiences, but I think fewer know who she really was a person, and she's fascinating, so we're hoping to share something of that with Canadians."
A crew is on the Island this week, shooting in some of Montgomery's favourite places.
Montgomery was inspired by the natural landscape and it wasn't uncommon for her to get out into nature for long walks, to take trips to the beach, sometimes even to write at the beach, Aronovitch said.
"We're looking at a lot of those natural settings and the beauty they offer and that was so inspirational to her as a setting for some of our story," she said.
'We know how popular Anne of Green Gables is, the story. We know that it was an instant classic almost upon publication, but what we don't know is that it was rejected by many publishers, and in fact, she put it away and that for years it didn't see the light of day. She thought she might never ever see it published, and that perseverance, that determination in the face of such great challenges, I think is truly inspiring and we hope other Canadians will agree."
Aronovitch said there have been many requests over the years to feature Montgomery or Anne of Green Gables in a Heritage Minute.
Anne of Green Gables was never an option because Heritage Minutes aren't made about fictional characters, but Anne will be included in Montgomery's Minute.
'Faced many challenges'
"She's someone who achieved so much in her lifetime, but yet who faced many challenges as well, much like Anne, and I think there's a lot I think we can unearth about the humanity of this person. She left behind a great store of journals that we've been able to mine for really, we think, is a very intimate insight into who this person was," Aronovitch said.
"She adopted the pen name L.M. Montgomery in part because it was gender-neutral, so she really was looking to make a path for herself as a writer to which she was very devoted."
This is the first Heritage Minute to be filmed on P.E.I. Shooting is scheduled to wrap up this week.
A second shoot will take place in Ontario next week.
The Heritage Minute about L.M. Montgomery will begin airing in the new year.
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