Where the Spirit Lives

I first saw this movie in middle school.....i remember this movie so much because it impacted me to such a degree. the emotional journey the main character takes you through helps as a viewer to understand the horrors that have been inflicted upon the natives of north America. I firmly believe that this movie is not only good for private home use, this is a great educational tool as well. I think that movies like this are why film is such a valuable teaching resource and such a valuable tool for educating a broad public audience at home via television. Overall a great film and i recommend it to teachers for their classes, and parents to show their children.

Where the Spirit Lives is a powerful and emotional movie underpinned with both Canadian and US history, superb acting, and beautiful landscape. The movie, taking place during the 1930s in Nova Scotia, takes a sensitive and moving look at how a dominant culture oppresses and/or destroys other cultures whose behavior is contrary to the dominant culture's norms and values. The movie also demonstrates the courage and tenacity of people as they struggle to hold on to their identity and to their families despite enormous odds. The film demonstrates some stereotypical character development: the pious but misdirected priest, the naive but good-intentioned new teacher, the highly cultured wealthy woman who intends on adopting the protagonist, the ugly, evil, and abusive assistant who sees the students as wicked savages. I use this movie in my English classroom in conjunction with the Social Studies curriculum on Minnesota and native American history. We specifically juxtapose commonalities such as theme with The Diary of Anne Frank and the novel by Minnesota author Jon Hassler, Jemmy, culminating in a compare/contrast essay.

Movie review: Where the Spirit Lives

The movie, "Where The Spirit Lives" is centered around a young Indian girl whose name Amalia and brother by the name of Abraham, taken from their home and forced into a Christian school to learn English. At first, the two were defiant and unwilling to participate. They were however, fortunate enough to have a fresh teacher with morals and kindness still intact. This did not change for awhile and they tried escaping, but as soon as they learned their parents had gotten sick and past away, they had nothing left, which lead to the acceptance of a new life. Thing's went well and the English language was learned, and the little girl was even going to be adapted by an upscale older woman. Until, they found out their parents were still alive and looking for them, and the church had lied to them. Finally, the time was right and the two left for home with the blessing of their teacher.

It's sad to think that the United States was actually ran like this. To force young children into learning English, instead of accepting their own culture and language. Their is plenty of communication that can happen without forcing the whole tribe to convert to the "American way of life." This was a good film that centered on those who were afflicted the most, the children. It depicts the religious attitude and way of thinking through the school where they attended and the faculty that supported the movement. It also gives you a look at the harsh conditions, with the beatings and solitary confinement, the children had to endure. These force full actions did seem to work with some of the children, but there was defiantly a tipping point.

I would recommend watching this movie to those who are curious about the harsh realities of our government and how they used to treat people, even indigenous people, who would not conform to the English culture. There is conflict, some drama, and a little bit of action tied into this movie throughout. It's an interesting film that dose not really have any drag. Just a well thought out and entertaining movie.

My Father is a Micmac and so am I. I'm 16 now and when i first saw this movie it was the early 90s. i must have been about 4 or 5 years old. The movie is based on Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia, Canada. My father was in that school for 6 years, longer then other people who where there. My dad isn't fixated on what happened while he was at that school, unlike other people. Some people that went to shubie school for 6 months talk about all that bad things that happened to them like they were there for 10 years. You'd never even know that my dad went there. When he does talk about shubie school it's not about the horrors of what went on, it's mainly good things like how the kids there used their slices of bread like money or how if you touched someone else food it became yours. That only bad thing he ever said about that school was that the food sucked so you had to eat it really fast. To this day he still eats his food fast, it doesn't even touch the plate and it's gone.

What i want to say is that i think this movie did an amazing job at portraying what went on behind the walls and that the Catholic church is messed up for thinking that they can "fix" everybody else to their standards. What happened in those schools is on some degree like what Catholic Priests molesting those children. For anyone who would really like to know more about Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, you should read "Out of The Depths" by Isabelle Knockwood. For rating i give this movie a 10 out of 10.

It is set in Alberta, Canada, beginning in 1937 and tells the story of a Kainai Nation girl abducted from her family and sent to a residential school further north in Alberta.

Ashton-Komi (Michelle St. John) is the young girl legally kidnapped from her family along with her brother, Pita (Clayton Julian), by the Indian Agent, Taggert (Ron White). She and her brother are sent to a fictional Anglican-run residential school called King George V Indian Mission. It's run by a hard-nosed Anglican priest, Rev. Buckley (David Hemblen), whose goal is to shake the dirt of the Indian culture from his students' roots so that they can grow into Anglo-Saxon Canadian culture. A new English teacher, Kathleen Gwillimbury (Ann-Marie MacDonald), is appalled by much of what she sees at the school, befriends and assists Komi, but does not visibly protest the ill-treatment. Graham Greene makes a cameo appearance as Komi's father.

The story follows Komi's life at the school, which includes an arbitrary change of her name to Amelia, denial of the right to speak her own language, physical strapping, observing the sexual mistreatment of a fellow student by Miss Appleby (Chapelle Jaffe), a failed escape attempt, believing lies about the fate of her parents, and seeing the death of her best friend, Rachel (Heather Hess), after another failed escape.

The acting is strong, especially from Michelle St. John, Ann-Marie MacDonald, and David Hemblen. Unfortunately, this was a fairly low-budget film made for television. Some parts of the story would have benefitted from a bit more detail. Nonetheless, this is a striking immersion into the residential school experience and has not lost its power in the 30 years since first televised.