Pocahontas

After watching a movie with your children or students, we encourage parents and teachers to look for education opportunities to teach with movies. Here are a few discussion topics that can help with lesson plans or teaching in the home.

Looking at Disney animations over the years is an interesting way of examining our culture’s evolving definition of what constitutes a beautiful female body. What differences do you see between heroines such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, and more resent figures like Ariel, Jasmine, and Pocahontas.

When Pocahontas released in 1995, it stirred up some controversy about how this historical figure was portrayed. For a sampling of opinions and some of the facts behind the movies’ namesake, you might want to check out the following sites: Four portraits of Pocahontas and some of her life’s details are found here: http://www.co.henrico.va.us/manager/pokeypix.htm
A descendant of Pocahontas compares her story to the Disney film here: http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/1001/poca.html
The late chief of the Powhatan tribe responds to the movie here: http://www.powhatan.org/pocc.html