Ten Canoes and Rabbit Proof Fence are both considered milestones of Australian cinema; and are about to be re-released after being digitally remastered. And a warning to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers that this report contains images and voices of someone who has died.Set in Arnhem Land in northern Australia, the film follows the story of an Aboriginal warrior who joins a group of men in building ten canoes to go into the swamps to hunt goose eggs.
"I had to make sure that they felt real - and had - real ownership of the process and of the film. The process grew organically out of - and the script grew organically out of - that working process." The policy was one of a number implemented by authorities across Australia that resulted in the forced removal of generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.
And the film did stir controversy, then government minister Eric Abetz demanded the director apologise over the portrayal of the treatment of Indigenous Australians."And the reason we have spent last year bringing this film back to life is for the next generation. The film has now been futureproofed."