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Where the Spirit Lives
Where the Spirit Lives is a 1989 television film about Aboriginal children in Canada being taken from their tribes to attend residential schools for assimilation into majority culture. Written by Keith Ross Leckie and directed by Bruce Pittman, it aired on CBC Television on October 29, 1989.[2] It was also shown in the United States on PBS on June 6, 1990, as part of the American Playhouse series[3][4] and was screened at multiple film festivals in Canada and the United States.
The film stars Michelle St. John as Amelia, a young Kainai girl captured and confined to the residential 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 includes Ann-Marie MacDonald and David Hemblen as teachers at the school.
Indian Horse
Indian Horse is a 2017 Canadian drama film adaptation of the 2012 novel by author Richard Wagamese (Ojibwe) of the same name. Directed by Stephen S. Campanelli and written by Dennis Foon, it premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and received a general theatrical release in 2018.[2]
The film centres on Saul Indian Horse, a young Canadian First Nations boy who survives the Canada's Indian residential school system to become a star ice hockey player.[3][4][5] The film stars Sladen Peltier as Saul at age 6, Forrest Goodluck as Saul at age 15, and Ajuawak Kapashesit as Saul at age 22; along with supporting roles by Edna Manitowabi, Evan Adams, Michiel Huisman, Michael Murphy, and Martin Donovan.[2]
Rabbit Proof Fence
Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian drama film directed and produced by Phillip Noyce based on the 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara. It is loosely based on a true story concerning the author's mother Molly Craig, as well as two other Aboriginal girls, Daisy Kadibil and Gracie, who escape from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, Western Australia, to return to their Aboriginal families, after being placed there in 1931. The film follows the Aboriginal girls as they walk for nine weeks along 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of the Australian rabbit-proof fence to return to their community at Jigalong, while being pursued by white law enforcement authorities and an Aboriginal tracker.[2] The film illustrates the official child removal policy that existed in Australia between approximately 1905 and 1967. Its victims now are called the "Stolen Generations".
The soundtrack to the film, called Long Walk Home: Music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence, is by Peter Gabriel. British producer Jeremy Thomas, who has a long connection with Australia, was executive producer of the film, selling it internationally through his sales arm, HanWay Films. In 2005 the British Film Institute included it in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.
Rhymes for Young Ghouls
Rhymes for Young Ghouls is a 2013 Canadian independent drama film and the feature-film debut of writer-director Jeff Barnaby. Set in 1976 on the fictional Red Crow Mi'kmaq reservation, it takes place in the context of the Canadian residential school system.[3]
Although it tells the fictional story of a teenager named Aila and her plot for revenge, it is based on the history of abuse of the First Nations people by government agents, including a large number of reported cases of the mental and physical abuse of residential school children.[3] It is presented from the perspective of a teenage girl.
After learning about American Indian Boarding Schools and watching Reel Injun, answer these questions
1) What did you think about stereotypes of Native Americans and how they are portrayed in films?
2) What current films or TV Shows have you watched that portray Native American people in a comtemporary way?