Where the Spirit Lives

5 scenes that left an impression…

1)The very first scene to me was very interesting. This is when the man tries to lure the children into the plane by singing and dancing. He made everything seem like it was going to be fun and easy for the children, but it clearly was not. I’m sure back when they were bringing children to the school they lied a lot about what the school was going to be like.
2)Secondly, when they are brought to the school they get punished if they don’t speak English. When they speak Indian there they get beaten or put in confinement, which is completely against all their right, but in this school they basically had none.
3)Next, is the first time she tries to run away. She doesn’t realize how far away any other people are, and that there is no way she could make it back home alive. The man catches her and her brother, and when he does he brings her back to the school.
4)Also, one thing I thought was it was so horrible that the staff at the school told astokomee and peetah that their parents had died. They did this so that the kids wouldn’t have a reason to run away.
5)Finally, the most important scene was the last one when the two of them take a horse and escape. Even though the nice teacher catches them, she knows it’s the right thing to do to let them free.

Movie review

Overall, I thought this movie did a good job of showing how the first nations people that were in residential schools were treated. It was horrible what the white people did to them, and even though this movie was a bit boring, it portrayed it well.
This movie was educational, accurate, and very sad.

The reason this movie is educational is because it teaches us how the first nations people were treated. They had no rights when they were in the school and this movie is a good way to learn about it. You can take in a lot more from a movie than you can from just reading a textbook.

As well, it was accurate. Unlike Hollywood movies, the events in the movie were real. If you spoke Indian you were beaten. If you tried to run away you were thrown in a small ‘dungeon’. This movie shows all of this way better than any type of text or person could describe it. Although it was gruesome, its just the facts of what these innocent people went through.

This movie I’m sure for a lot of people was extremely hard to watch because of how sad it was. It’s sad to think that this isn’t just a made up story, and it really happened to real people like you and me. These people didn’t deserve any of this, and this is one of the worst forms of racial discrimination. Even if you didn’t get sad, you felt like the white people had done something wrong in the past and this should never have happened.

Basically my review on this movie is a pretty good one. It was educational, it was portrayed accurately, and it really got the message across. I would recommend it to anyone who is wanting to expand their knowledge on residential schooling.