Where the Spirit Lives (1990) [PG]

Release Date:
June 6, 1990

Original Title:
Where the Spirit Lives

Alternate Titles:
Henkien tanssi
Wo ich zuhause bin

Genres:
Drama

Production Companies:
Amazing Spirit Productions Ltd.
Atlantis Films
CBC

Ratings / Certifications:
CA: PG  US: PG 

Runtime: 96

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

In 1937, a young First Nations (Canadian native) 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. She is taken to a boarding school where she is forced to adopt Western Euro-centric ways and learn English, often under brutal treatment. Only one sympathetic white teacher who is more and more repelled by this bigotry offers her any help from among the staff. That, with her force of will, Ashtecome (forced to take the name Amelia) is determined to hold on to her identity and that of her siblings, who were also abducted.

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Art Direction:
Tim Bider

Casting:
Arlene Berman

Costume Design:
Sylvie Krasker

Director:
Bruce Pittman

Director of Photography:
Rene O'Hashi

Editor:
Michael Todd

Executive Producer:
Paul Stephens

Hairstylist:
Perry Kutsch

Makeup Artist:
Nicole Demers

Music:
Buffy Sainte-Marie

Producer:
Heather Haldane
Eric Jordan
Scott Shepherd
Mary Young Leckie

Production Design:
Valanne Ridgeway

Production Manager:
Nancy Harvey

Set Decoration:
Jane Manchee

Writer:
Keith Ross Leckie

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