http://missvansblog.global2.vic.edu.au/2015/04/15/mollys-australian-story/
Directed by Phillip Noyce, 2002.
Rabbit Proof Fence is a drama film that explores the experiences of indigenous Australians during the Stolen Generation. The film follows the story of three young aboriginal girls who want to return home after being placed in a settlement.
The film was adapted from a book, Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington which is based on the authors mothers experience.
Rabbit Proof Fence took $7,562,439 at the Australian Box-Office making it the 38th of the highest grossing Australian film of all time. (Screen Australia, 2015)
The film was nominated for 10 AFI awards in 2002 and won 3 of them including Best Film. (AACTA, 2015)
Australian Director, Phillip Noyce has experience both in Australia and abroad, with a substantial body of work being produced in Hollywood. However, when asked about his most proud moment as a filmmaker he said, “Rabbit-Proof Fence, easily. Showing that film to various Aboriginal communities around the country and seeing their response, because it gave validity to the experiences of the stolen generations.” (Noyce, 2015)
Despite it’s commercial success, the film was also criticised.
In his article The Holes in the Rabbit Proof Fence, Keith Windschuttle questions the authenticity of the film.
“Teachers of history think this film appropriate because its producers advertise it as ‘a true story’ and it is based on a book about real people. In this, it is unlike the more recent Australian film, Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, which incorporates the Stolen Generations story in its plot. Australia does not pretend to be anything more than a work of the imagination, a traditional Hollywood-style romance-adventure. Rabbit-Proof Fence, however, should also be regarded a work of dramatic fiction. It gets the names of several of the main historical characters and locations right, but not much else.” (Windschuttle, 2015)
Conservative journalist, Andrew Bolt was particularly scathing of the film and it’s director.
“The truth of our past is hard enough to face. Untruths and exaggerations now will only divide us. Your film shames not us, Phillip Noyce, but you”. (Bolt, 2002)