Click here to watch the film "Where the Spirit Lives" (1989) A feature film set in 1937, about 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 sibling to do so as well. She plans their escape.
About this film and the
film's cast include Graham Greene, Gus Chief Moon, Michelle St. John, Kim Bruisedhead Fox, Marge Fox, Marianne Jones, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Margaret Cozry, Rudy Medicine Crane, Clayton Julian, Ron White, Doris Petrie and David Hemblen.
Directed by Bruce Pittman
Written by Keith Ross Leckie
Music by Buffy Saint-Marie
Cinematography by Rene Ohashi
I am proud to have been associated with this film.
