Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese RELEASE:
10 Jan 2012
Oranges and Sunshine, the moving often confronting film about the forced removal of thousands of British children to Australia has been named Best Film of 2011 by the Australian Catholic Film Office (ACFO).
Directed by Ken Loach and starring Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham, the film tells the true story of Nottingham social worker, Margaret Humphreys (Watson) and her search in the 1980s to locate victims of an official policy between the Australian and UK governments to ship poor British children to Australia.
The two Governments continued this policy over several decades in a bid to ensure populations in "the Colonies" remained predominantly white and Anglo Saxon. The more than 130,000 children forcibly deported to Australia, however, were simply told they were going to a better life filled with "sunshine and oranges."
Often taken from their single unwed mothers without permission, the children were usually told their mother or parents and died. They were forced to live in charitable orphanages on their arrival in Australia but often endured unhappy, lonely, loveless lives filled with drudgery and despair.
It took the determination of Margaret Humphreys to uncover the scandal and eventually help reunite many of these broken children, who by now were adults, with their British mothers, families and relatives.
"One of the most remarkable aspects of the film is that it treats these events with a complete lack of sensationalism, giving the movie great power," says Fr Richard Leonard, SJ, Director of the ACFO and chairman of the Jury convened to decide on the best film for 2011.
The film dramatizes what the children and their families went through and focuses on the effects of the injustice on the children, who as adults, are still coping with a loss of identity.
"The jury felt that while the film is rightly critical of the way church-run institutions, orphanages and schools in Australia were often complicit in the terrible injustices done to these children, we also believe it throws light on the damage done to innocent victims, the devastating consequences for some, and the possible healing for others. Things to which the Catholic Church in Australia is totally committed," explains Fr Leonard.
Between the mid 1940s until the 1970s as many as 130,000 children were forcibly shipped to Australia, with more than 7000 of these youngsters in the protection of UK social services which deemed them "unfit" and "degenerate."
The ACFO praised Emily Watson's performance as Margaret Humphreys and lauded Jim Loach for offering a social-issues film of great restraint, demonstrating a passionate commitment to justice as he searched for the truth behind a terrible wrong.
Among the ACFO's highly commended films released during 2011 were Jonathan Teplitzky;'s Burning Man, and what the Jury described as a very strong and compelling sextet of films relating to the experiences of indigenous Australians: Toomelah, The Tall Man, Mad Bastards, Red Hill, Here I Am and Murrandak.
Last year's winner of the ACFO's Film of the Year for 2010 was Claire McCarthy's The Waiting City and the previous year Best Film went to Samson and Delilah, the tender compelling tale of young love in a remote indigenous community.
Other winners of the past decade include The Black Balloon, Ten Canoes, Look Both Ways, Rabbit Proof Fence, Black and White, Australian Rules and Looking for Alibrandi.
http://www.sydneycatholic.org/news/latest_news/2012/2012110_1836.shtml
10 Jan 2012
Oranges and Sunshine named ACFO's
Best Film of 2011
Directed by Ken Loach and starring Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham, the film tells the true story of Nottingham social worker, Margaret Humphreys (Watson) and her search in the 1980s to locate victims of an official policy between the Australian and UK governments to ship poor British children to Australia.
The two Governments continued this policy over several decades in a bid to ensure populations in "the Colonies" remained predominantly white and Anglo Saxon. The more than 130,000 children forcibly deported to Australia, however, were simply told they were going to a better life filled with "sunshine and oranges."
Often taken from their single unwed mothers without permission, the children were usually told their mother or parents and died. They were forced to live in charitable orphanages on their arrival in Australia but often endured unhappy, lonely, loveless lives filled with drudgery and despair.
It took the determination of Margaret Humphreys to uncover the scandal and eventually help reunite many of these broken children, who by now were adults, with their British mothers, families and relatives.
130,000 poor British children were forcibly deported
to Australia with promsies of oranges and sunshine
The film dramatizes what the children and their families went through and focuses on the effects of the injustice on the children, who as adults, are still coping with a loss of identity.
"The jury felt that while the film is rightly critical of the way church-run institutions, orphanages and schools in Australia were often complicit in the terrible injustices done to these children, we also believe it throws light on the damage done to innocent victims, the devastating consequences for some, and the possible healing for others. Things to which the Catholic Church in Australia is totally committed," explains Fr Leonard.
Between the mid 1940s until the 1970s as many as 130,000 children were forcibly shipped to Australia, with more than 7000 of these youngsters in the protection of UK social services which deemed them "unfit" and "degenerate."
Hugo Weaving and Emily Watson gave powerful
performances in Oranges and Sunshine
Among the ACFO's highly commended films released during 2011 were Jonathan Teplitzky;'s Burning Man, and what the Jury described as a very strong and compelling sextet of films relating to the experiences of indigenous Australians: Toomelah, The Tall Man, Mad Bastards, Red Hill, Here I Am and Murrandak.
Last year's winner of the ACFO's Film of the Year for 2010 was Claire McCarthy's The Waiting City and the previous year Best Film went to Samson and Delilah, the tender compelling tale of young love in a remote indigenous community.
Other winners of the past decade include The Black Balloon, Ten Canoes, Look Both Ways, Rabbit Proof Fence, Black and White, Australian Rules and Looking for Alibrandi.
http://www.sydneycatholic.org/news/latest_news/2012/2012110_1836.shtml
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