Where the Spirit Lives

Where the Spirit Lives

Where the Spirit Lives

Share

Where the Spirit Lives

"A moving tribute to a young girl's courage and indomitable spirit..."

1990

1h 36m

6.2(5 votes)

Drama

Overview

In 1937, a young First Nations girl named Ashtecome is kidnapped along with several other children from a village as part of a deliberate Canadian policy to force First Nations children to abandon their culture in order to be assimilated into white Canadian/British society. Taken to a boarding school where she's forced to adopt Western Euro-centric ways and learn English, often under brutal treatment, she has the support of one sympathetic white teacher.

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

CBC

Cast & Crew

27 members

Acting

Michelle St. John

Komi / Amelia

Michelle St. John

Acting

Kim Bruisedhead Fox

Anataki

No Image

Acting

Marianne Jones

Komi's Mother

No Image

Acting

Gus Chief Moon

Ka - moos - ee

No Image

Acting

Clayton Julian

Pita / Abraham

No Image

Acting

Margaret Cozry

Grandmother

No Image

Acting

Marge Fox

Anataki's Mother

No Image

Acting

Ann-Marie MacDonald

Kathleen

Ann-Marie MacDonald

Acting

Sean Mulcahy

Priest

No Image

Acting

Sam Malkin

Mr. Crawford

Sam Malkin

Acting

Doris Petrie

Miss Weir

Doris Petrie

Acting

Chapelle Jaffe

Miss Appleby

Chapelle Jaffe

Acting

Tina Louise Bomberry

Asst. Supervisor #2

No Image

Acting

Barbara Wheeldon

Matron

No Image

Acting

John Friesen

Mr. Babcock

John Friesen

Acting

Heather Hess

Rachel

No Image

Acting

Cynthia Debassige

Esther

No Image

Acting

Franklin Doss

George

No Image

Acting

Darlene Shilling

Rose

No Image

Acting

Margaret Martina

Sarah

No Image

Writing

Sarah Williams

Ruth

No Image

Acting

Patricia Collins

Mrs. Barrington

Patricia Collins

Acting

Graham Greene

Komi's Father

Graham Greene

Acting

Rudy Medicine Crane

Rachel's Mother

No Image

Acting

David Hemblen

Reverend Buckley

David Hemblen

Acting

Ron White

Taggert

Ron White

Acting

Sarah Williams

Ruth

No Image

Similar Movies

The Unforgiven

The Unforgiven

The neighbors of a frontier family turn on them when it is suspected that their beloved adopted daughter was stolen from the Kiowa tribe.

The White Dawn

The White Dawn

In 1896, three survivors of a whaling ship-wreck in the Canadian Arctic are saved and adopted by an Eskimo tribe but frictions arise when the three start misbehaving.

Like Stars on Earth

Like Stars on Earth

Ishaan Awasthi is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate. Colours, fish, dogs, and kites don't seem important to the adults, who are much more interested in things like homework, marks, and neatness. Ishaan cannot seem to get anything right in class; he is then sent to boarding school, where his life changes forever.

Blueprint

Blueprint

The story of the first cloned human being - told in her own words: At the age of thirty the world-famous composer Iris Sellin learns that she has an incurable illness. She - a person who wanted to live for ever - does however not give in. In order to preserve her art and also herself, beyond death, for all posterity, she has herself cloned. Her daughter Siri, whom, in this way, she turns into her virtual twin, learns as a child that she is the world's first cloned human being. In fact a blueprint: a blueprint of her mother. From that moment on nothing is as it was before...

The History Boys

The History Boys

The story of an unruly class of bright, funny history students at a Yorkshire grammar school in pursuit of an undergraduate place at Oxford or Cambridge. Bounced between their maverick English master, a young and shrewd teacher hired to up their test scores, a grossly out-numbered history teacher, and a headmaster obsessed with results, the boys attempt to pass.

The Homesman

The Homesman

When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy. Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a low-life drifter, George Briggs, to join her. The unlikely pair and the three women head east, where a waiting minister and his wife have offered to take the women in. But the group first must traverse the harsh Nebraska Territories marked by stark beauty, psychological peril and constant threat.

Brothers

Brothers

Two young brothers are abandoned by their mother during summer of 1948, they run into the forest and survive there for seven years.

Jekyll

Jekyll

The only living descendant of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde makes a deal with the dark side.

Heads or Tails

Four interlinking stories about a benign native american legend that has been distorted throughout the years into something much darker.

Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine

This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.

1492: Conquest of Paradise

1492: Conquest of Paradise

1492: Conquest of Paradise depicts Christopher Columbus’ discovery of The New World and his effect on the indigenous people.

Apocalypto

Apocalypto

Set in the Mayan civilization, when a man's idyllic presence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.

Wildfire

Wildfire

Since they met the first time in boarding school as little kids, it was obvious that the orphans Kay and Dave would become a couple. But at sixteen, Dave foolishly attempted to rob a bank with a water pistol, and ended up in jail for eight years. Meanwhile Kay was sent to foster parents, where she met the successful business man Mike, whom she married and bore two kids. Now Frank is released from prison and immediately starts wooing Kay again. Although she's happy with Mike, she can't withdraw herself completely. Old memories and her husband's jealousy make her spend more and more time with him.

Perfect

In an alternate 1950s where humans can be grown from seeds, a lonely woman reluctantly plants herself a brand new husband with hopes that he's the "perfect" one.

Legends of the Fall

Legends of the Fall

In early 20th-century Montana, Col. William Ludlow lives on a ranch in the wilderness with his sons, Alfred, Tristan, and Samuel. Eventually, the unconventional but close-knit family are bound by loyalty, tested by war, and torn apart by love, as told over the course of several decades in this epic saga.

Two Lines in Small Font

Two Lines in Small Font

While studying the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia, a historian decides to restore the good name of one of the revolutionaries, who was accused of betrayal by his comrades-in-arms and committed suicide.

Search for the Gods

Search for the Gods

A valuable medallion believed to prove that aliens from outer space visited Earth in prehistoric times is sought.

Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald

Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald

The story of the widow of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of shooting President Kennedy. Via flashbacks, the story traces the woman's life from her days in Russia, the turmoil following the assassination, raising her family, and coming to grips with the fact that she too may have been a pawn in a grand conspiracy.

Tubelight

Tubelight

Laxman Singh Bisht is nicknamed tube light by his neighbours because he is feeble-minded. Despite being special, Laxman lives by one life-lesson; keep your faith alive and you can do almost anything, even stop a war.

The Chorus

The Chorus

In 1940s France, a new teacher at a school for disruptive boys gives hope and inspiration.

Recommended Movies

Indian Horse

Indian Horse

Follows the life of Native Canadian Saul Indian Horse as he survives residential school and life amongst the racism of the 1970s. A talented hockey player, Saul must find his own path as he battles stereotypes and alcoholism.

Skin

Skin

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

The Book Thief

The Book Thief

While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refugee is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.

All Together Now

All Together Now

An optimistic, talented teen clings to a huge secret: she's homeless and living on a school bus. When tragedy strikes, can she learn to accept a helping hand?

The Dead Don't Hurt

The Dead Don't Hurt

In the 1860s, fiercely independent French-Canadian Vivienne Le Coudy embarks on a journey with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen, attempting to forge a life together in the dusty town of Elk Flats, Nevada. When Holger decides to go fight for the Union in the burgeoning Civil War, Vivienne must fend for herself, which isn't easy in a town controlled by a corrupt mayor.

Rez Ball

Rez Ball

After losing their star player, a high school basketball team rooted in Native American culture must unite to keep their state championship dreams alive.

Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward

Like some other kids, 12-year-old Trevor McKinney believed in the goodness of human nature. Like many other kids, he was determined to change the world for the better. Unlike most other kids, he succeeded.

The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds

After a disease kills 98% of America's children, the surviving 2% develop superpowers and are placed in internment camps. A 16-year-old girl escapes her camp and joins a group of other teens on the run from the government.

Doubt

Doubt

In 1964 Bronx, two Catholic school nuns question the new priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled African-American student.

Before I Fall

Before I Fall

Samantha Kingston has everything. Then, everything changes. After one fateful night, she wakes up with no future at all. Trapped into reliving the same day over and over, she begins to question just how perfect her life really was.

The Way West

The Way West

In the mid-19th century, Senator William J. Tadlock leads a group of settlers overland in a quest to start a new settlement in the Western US. Tadlock is a highly principled and demanding taskmaster who is as hard on himself as he is on those who have joined his wagon train. He clashes with one of the new settlers, Lije Evans, who doesn't quite appreciate Tadlock's ways. Along the way, the families must face death and heartbreak and a sampling of frontier justice when one of them accidentally kills a young Indian boy.

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe flees Britain on a ship after killing his friend over the love of Mary. A fierce ocean storm wrecks his ship and leaves him stranded by himself on an uncharted island. Left to fend for himself, Crusoe seeks out a tentative survival on the island, until he meets Friday, a tribesman whom he saves from being sacrificed. Initially, Crusoe is thrilled to finally have a friend, but he has to defend himself against the tribe who uses the island to sacrifice tribesman to their gods. During time their relationship changes from master-slave to a mutual respected friendship despite their difference in culture and religion.

Fast Girls

Fast Girls

A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.

The Giver

The Giver

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

Unconquered

Unconquered

England, 1763. After being convicted of a crime, the young and beautiful Abigail Hale agrees, to escape the gallows, to serve fourteen years as a slave in the colony of Virginia, whose inhabitants begin to hear and fear the sinister song of the threatening drums of war that resound in the wild Ohio valley.

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

Scout Finch, 6, and her older brother Jem live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama, spending much of their time with their friend Dill and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. When Atticus, their widowed father and a respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping.

Beyond the Blackboard

Beyond the Blackboard

Inspired by a true story, “Beyond the Blackboard” is about a 24-year-old first-time teacher who makes a difference in the lives of the homeless children she teaches in a shelter’s makeshift classroom. Set in 1987 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this movie tells the story a brand-new teacher and Mom who is given a tougher than expected teaching job and winds up teaching homeless children in a school that is housed in a room and called, literally, The School with No Name. She has some personal prejudicial hurdles to cross before she is able to be a true teacher for these children and of course there are hurdles like the lack of books and supplies.

Dangerous Minds

Dangerous Minds

Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.

The Good Lie

The Good Lie

A young refugee of the Sudanese Civil War who wins a lottery for relocation to the United States with three other lost boys. Encountering the modern world for the first time, they develop an unlikely friendship with a brash American woman assigned to help them, but the young man struggles to adjust to this new life and his feelings of guilt about the brother he left behind.

What Maisie Knew

What Maisie Knew

In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.