Where the Spirit Lives
Promotional poster
Written by	Keith Ross Leckie
Directed by	Bruce Pittman
Starring	Michelle St. John Kim Bruisedhead Fox
Music by	Buffy Sainte-Marie
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
Production
Producers	Heather Haldane Eric Jordan Mary Young Leckie
Cinematography	Rene Ohashi
Editor	Michael Todd
Running time	96 minutes
Production company	Screen Door
Budget	$2.6 million[1]
Original release
Network	CBC Television
Release	October 29, 1989 (1989-10-29)

Where the Spirit Lives is a 1989television film aboutAboriginal children in Canada being taken from their tribes to attendresidential schools for assimilation intomajority culture. Written byKeith Ross Leckie and directed byBruce Pittman, it aired onCBC Television on October 29, 1989.^[2] It was also shown in the United States onPBS on June 6, 1990, as part of theAmerican Playhouse series^[3][4] and was screened at multiple film festivals in Canada and the United States.

The film starsMichelle St. John as Amelia, a youngKainai girl captured and confined to theresidential school system of the 1930s. The system was an attempt to have aboriginal youth to assimilate into the majority European-Canadian culture. Amelia resists assimilation and plans her escape. The film's cast includesAnn-Marie MacDonald andDavid Hemblen as teachers at the school.

In 1937, a youngKainai girl named Ashtoh-Komi (Michelle St. John) is kidnapped along with several other children from a village as part of a Canadian policy to educate Aboriginal children and assimilate them into Canadian/British society. She is taken to a boarding school, where she is forced to adopt Western,Eurocentric ways and learn English, often under harsh treatment. Combined with the rejection of her peers (as she is a so-called "Bush Indian" who has not learnt white customs), Komi attempts to escape one night on foot with her little brother, Pita (Clayton Julian). However her plan is quickly foiled as theIndian Agent assigned to the school, Taggert (Ron White), catches up and brings them back to the school, where Komi is subjected to further punishment. Eventually Rachel (Heather Hess), Komi's only ally among the students, plead with the teachers to free her by promising to teach Komi to behave.

One teacher, Kathleen Gwillimbury (Ann-Marie MacDonald), is portrayed as sympathetic and she becomes repelled by the bigotry of others at the school. She offers Komi help in the form of giving her English lessons which culminate in cultural exchange, where Kathleen learns Kainai words from Komi in exchange for her learning their English counterparts. Now Amelia, Komi improves her English quickly with the kindness and support of her teacher, gradually adjusting to the school environment while retaining her Kainai identity. However, when Amelia learns that the teachers lied to her by telling her her parents had died, she decides to escape again, this time successfully.

• Michelle St. John – Ashtoh-Komi/Amelia^[5]
• Kim Bruisedhead Fox – Anataki
• Clayton Julian – Pita/Abraham
• Ron White – Taggert
• Ann-Marie MacDonald – Kathleen Gwillimbury
• Doris Petrie – Miss Weir
• Chapelle Jaffe – Miss Appleby
• David Hemblen – Reverend Buckley
• John Friesen – Mr. Babcock
• Patricia Collins – Mrs. Barrington
• Graham Greene – Komi's father^[6]
• Heather Hess – Rachel

The idea for the film originated when the producers and screenwriter were working on the 13-episode CBC television seriesSpirit Bay, which focused on native children growing up on a Northern Ontario Indian reserve. They "kept hearing bitter stories aboutresidential schools"^[1] and were inspired to tell a story about that system in a film.

Primary financing for the film's $2.6 million budget was provided byTelefilm Canada ($1.25 million) and theCBC ($500,000), who secured first rights to the film. Other financing came from the Ontario Film Development Corporation,Mid-Canada TV, andAtlantis Releasing. Canadian film director and producerNorman Jewison "personally contributed $12,500, half the cost of making a theatrical print for film festivals",^[7] with the other half supplied by the Ontario Film Development Corp.

The film began shooting on September 26, 1988.^[8] Locations includedWaterton Lakes National Park in southernAlberta andToronto.^[9]

Although created for television, the film was shot in35 mm^[1] and as a result was able to be screened in theaters. It was shown at various film festivals in Canada and the United States from 1989 through 2002. It was also screened at some colleges and universities, as part of college film festivals,^[10][11] classes,^[12] or special events related toIndigenous orNative American studies.^[13]

The film won nine awards and was nominated for two additional awards.^[24]

• Sleeping Children Awake, a 1992 documentary about residential schools
• We Were Children, a 2012 Canadian documentary about residential schools
• Our Spirits Don't Speak English (2008), a documentary film aboutNative American boarding schools in the United States.

• Where the Spirit Lives, Screen Door Website
• Where the Spirit Lives atIMDb

• 1989 films
• CBC Television original films
• First Nations films
• Assimilation of Indigenous peoples of North America
• 1989 drama films
• English-language Canadian films
• Gemini and Canadian Screen Award for Best Television Film or Miniseries winners
• Canadian drama television films
• 1989 television films
• Works about residential schools in Canada
• 1980s English-language films
• Films directed by Bruce Pittman
• 1980s Canadian films
• Blackfoot in popular culture

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• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata