Where the Spirit Lives (1989)

Directed by

Bruce Pittman

Genre

drama film

Country

Canada

Runtime

1h 36m

Rated

PG

Rating

6.2 of 10 from 5 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In the 1930s, a young Kainai girl named Amelia is taken from her family and placed in a Canadian residential school meant to assimilate Aboriginal children. She holds onto her identity and quietly plans her escape.

melancholicpoignantrestrainedtensehistoricalatmosphericsomberdetermined

What happens

Where the Spirit Lives is a 1989 television film about Aboriginal children in Canada being taken from their nations to attend residential schools for assimilation into majority culture. Written by Keith Ross Leckie and directed by Bruce Pittman, it aired on CBC Television on October 29, 1989. It was also shown in the United States on PBS on June 6, 1990, as part of the American Playhouse series and was screened at multiple film festivals in Canada and the United States. The film stars Michelle St. John as Amelia, a young Kainai girl captured and confined to the residential school system of the 1930s. 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 and David Hemblen as teachers at the school. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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