Our Spirits Don't Speak English (2008)
- Original title
- Our Spirits Don't Speak English: Indian Boarding School
- Directed by
- Chip Richie
- Genre
- documentary film
- Country
- United States
- Runtime
- 1h 20m
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
This documentary covers Native American boarding schools from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. It shows how these schools forced young Native people to give up their own cultures and adopt European American ways.
historicalsoberingreflectiveeducationalsomberinformativeunflinchingpoignant
What happens
Our Spirits Don't Speak English (2008) is a documentary film about Native American boarding schools attended by young people mostly 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. Ross is a descendant of John Ross, chief of the Cherokee Nation in the Trail of Tears period. The film deals with both the schools run by Christian missionaries and those run by the United States' Bureau of Indian Affairs. It addresses the schools' role in forcing cultural assimilation of the resident children into the ways of the majority culture of European Americans. The School Library Journal's review called it an "outstanding documentary", noting that "viewers are encouraged to develop a deeper appreciation of the importance of transgenerational communication in the survival of Native American identity." Booklist's review called the documentary "enlightening". Indian Country Today called it "a story for everyone". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
Our Fires Still Burn (2013)
Flunked (2008)
The Divided Trail: A Native American Odyssey (1978)
How the West was Lost (1993)
Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North (2008)
The Canary Effect (2006)
Home of the Brave (1985)
Two Million Minutes- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.