Where the Spirit Lives (1989) is a drama film

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 about Aboriginal

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 children in Canada being taken from their tribes to attend residential schools for assimilation into majority culture. Written by Keith Ross Leckie and directed by Bruce Pittman, it aired on CBC Television

CBC Television

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 in 1989.

The film starred Michelle St. John as Amelia, a young First Nations

First Nations

First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...

 girl captured and confined to the residential school

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 system of the 1930s

1930s

File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...

. The system was an attempt to have aboriginal youth to assimilate into the majority European-Canadian culture. Amelia resists assimilation and plans her escape. The film's cast includes Ann-Marie MacDonald

Ann-Marie MacDonald

Ann-Marie MacDonald is a Canadian playwright, novelist, actor and broadcast journalist who lives in Toronto, Ontario. The daughter of a member of Canada's military, she was born at an air force base near Baden-Baden, West Germany....

 and David Hemblen

David Hemblen

David Hemblen is an English-born actor who frequently works in Canadian film, television and theater. He was a mainstay on the television series Earth: Final Conflict, playing Jonathan Doors, and played recurring roles in A Nero Wolfe Mystery and La Femme Nikita . He voiced Magneto on the popular...

 as teachers at the school.

Plot

In 1937, a young First Nations girl named Ashtoh-Komi is kidnapped along with several other children from a village as part of a Canadian policy to educate First Nations children and assimilate them into Canadian/British society. She is taken to a boarding school, where she is forced to adopt Western Euro-centric ways and learn English, often under harsh treatment. One teacher is portrayed as sympathetic and she becomes repelled by the bigotry of others at the school. She offers Ashtoh-Komi help. Forced to take the name Amelia, Ashtoh-Komi determines to hold on to her First Nations identity and encourages her younger siblings to do so as well. She plans their escape.

Cast

• Michelle St. John  - Astoh-Komi/Amelia
• Clayton Julian  - Pita/Abraham
• Ann-Marie MacDonald
  Ann-Marie MacDonald
  Ann-Marie MacDonald is a Canadian playwright, novelist, actor and broadcast journalist who lives in Toronto, Ontario. The daughter of a member of Canada's military, she was born at an air force base near Baden-Baden, West Germany....
  
  - Kathleen
• Ron White - Taggert
• David Hemblen
  David Hemblen
  David Hemblen is an English-born actor who frequently works in Canadian film, television and theater. He was a mainstay on the television series Earth: Final Conflict, playing Jonathan Doors, and played recurring roles in A Nero Wolfe Mystery and La Femme Nikita . He voiced Magneto on the popular...
  
    - Reverend Buckley
• Doris Petrie
  Doris Petrie
  Doris Petrie was a Canadian film and television actress, best known for her roles in the films Wedding in White and Ticket to Heaven and the television series High Hopes, in which she played Meg Chapman, the mother of the main character, Dr...
  
    - Miss Weir

See also

• Our Spirits Don't Speak English
  Our Spirits Don't Speak English
  Our Spirits Don't Speak English is a documentary film about the Native American boarding schools, which youths attended chiefly from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. It was filmed by the Rich Heape company and directed by Chip Richie. Native American storyteller Gayle Ross narrated the film...
  
  (2008), a documentary film about Native American boarding schools
  Native American boarding schools
  An Indian boarding school refers to one of many schools that were established in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to educate Native American children and youths according to Euro-American standards...
  
  in the United States.

External links

• Where the Spirit Lives, Screen Door Website