Rabbit-Proof Fence page home photo gallery cover gallery news & notes reading room

Rabbit Proof Fence: Press
 
Ananova, 5 February 2002

Guests at Premiere of New Kenneth Branagh Film Given Tissues

Packets of tissues were placed on every seat at the world premiere of Kenneth Branagh's new film.

Rabbit Proof Fence is a tearjerker based on the true story of three Aboriginal girls. They escaped from authorities after being taken from their parents in 1931 to become domestic servants.

The film is based on a book by Doris Pilkington Garimara.

Branagh plays English-born AO Neville, the man behind the plan to remove the girls from their families to make them "white". He wasn't at the screening in Sydney as he is currently filming Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets.


Sydney Confidential, Daily Telegraph, 5 February 2002

Rabbit-Proof Debut

They cried, they laughed, then, as one, an emotional audience cheered at the world premiere screening of Phillip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence.

A star-studded opening night crowd attended at Fox Studios including Toni Collette, Bryan Brown and Deborah Mailman.

There was not a dry eye in the house when author Doris Pilkington Garimara - on whose book the film was based - spoke to the audience after the credits rolled. The book tells the story of three little girls taken from their mothers to be brought up in white families.

The movie begins with the trio playing happily with their mothers in a remote Aboriginal camp and follows their tale as they are snatched under misguided white man's policy and taken to a settlement for "retraining" as white people. The girls escape and this starts a 1930km adventure as they try to return home.

Packets of Kleenex tissues were placed on every seat last night - and, if they weren't used during the movie, they were certainly utilised when Doris explained why she had to tell such a personal story.

The three young Aboriginal girls who star in the movie were guests of honour last night - and also managed to meet Cathy Freeman.
(Thanks, Paula B.)


AAP, 13 February 2002

Film May Help Stolen Generation Heal

An Aboriginal leader today urged Australians to see a new film based on the true story of three Aboriginal girls forcibly removed from their family.

ATSIC Perth Noongar chairman Farley Garlett said he hoped 'Rabbit Proof Fence' would help the healing process for members of the stolen generation and help other Australians gain an insight into what happened. "I urge Australians to see the film and to remember there are many more stories from members of the stolen generation which are yet to be heard," Mr Garlett said. "I hope this film will be a turning point in Australians' awareness of the complex and painful issues surrounding the stolen generation."

Rabbit Proof Fence, directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Kenneth Branagh, tells of the removal of three girls from their family in the remote Western Australian desert community of Jigalong in 1931. They were sent to the Moore River Mission, thousands of kilometres away, but eventually escaped and used the rabbit-proof fence to find their way home.

The movie premieres in Perth tonight.



Rabbit-Proof Fence page home photo gallery cover gallery news & notes reading room