Jun 15: Recommended Film Soundtracks #5: Rabbit Proof Fence

A recent post on Peter Gabriel's Facebook page referenced his work on Philip Noyce's film about a group of indigenous Aboriginal children who escape from an orphanage and cross the country guided by a fence which was installed to stop the spread of rabbits who were damaging crops. This references a period in the country's history which was particularly problematic...

The music Peter, David Rhodes and Richard Evans created for the film 'Rabbit Proof Fence' was nominated for Best Original Score at the 60th Golden Globes, which took place on 19 January 2003. In this video Peter gives a little insight into the creative process behind the music...

 
“It was a small, independent, heart project Phillip Noyce was working on and I thought the story was really strong. It was going to be an open canvas without huge amounts of dialogue and with a lot of room for atmospheric music, so it was attractive to me in many ways.
When I first met up with Phillip one of the ideas I proposed to him was that we build up a lot of soundtrack from natural sounds he would have recorded as he was shooting the film. I pictured them making this amazing journey along the rabbit proof fence without a whole lot of man-made noises to distract them so it was what the world around them – the natural world – was generating which would have been their soundtrack.”

The music is available on various streaming services.

A particularly excellent track is a version of a track called Sky Blue, featuring the Blind Boys of Alabama who I saw performing live with Peter in Manchester in Sheffield.