Philip Noyce (Director): "Rabbit Proof Fence tells the true story of three young Australian Aboriginal girls who, as part of official government policy, were taken from their families in Outback Western Australia in 1931, to be sent to an institution to be trained in 'white' ways.

The girls escaped and embarked on an incredible journey in search of the rabbit proof fence that bisected the continent, and if they could find it, would lead them home"

PN: " I think that Peter's major contribution to the film 'Rabbit Proof Fence' was, not only to underscore the drama that is the traditional function of a film composer, but Peter gave the film a poetry, and Peter was largely responsible for allowing the audience to really participate in the emotions that were at play in the story."

Peter Gabriel: "I'd had a lot of film offers which is a great thing because I enjoy the process and when 'Rabbit Proof Fence' came along it was a really interesting, emotional, simple story and it was, I think, a project of love for quite a lot of the participants. It's been a real pleasure working with it. Originally I wanted to try and do something that was integrating a lot of the sounds effects track into the music and I still really would like to try to do a film score entirely composed of manipulated sound effects. I think they give it quite an unusual backdrop; add some aboriginal elements, a didgeridoo player - Ganga Giri - that I'd worked with, and clapsticks, which are basically little bits of wood that get banged together, but good ones sounding pretty funky, they were..er..all over the place."

PN: " What he said to me at first was 'I want to do a score that comes out of the earth. I want to do a score that expresses the Aboriginal 'oneness' with their land.' So he said that he wanted me to provide him with all the real sounds that would be used in the effects and atmosphere track of the film - birds, insects, winds, rain, water, all sorts of animal sounds. Peter would then sample these sounds, program them and synthesise them, and make them part of his score"

photo by Stephen Lovell-Davis

PG: "One of my favourite moments in the film is the end piece. There are two actresses who play the grandmother and mother in the film and they are..um..mother and daughter in real life, and the provided some singing and..er..did some beautiful phrases that we then laced into the track and..er..infact Stephen Hague has also worked on a remix of..of the track. It's very soulful because when you hear it in isolation it doesn't sound immediately familiar, but put on a backdrop, and there seem to be quite a lot of, sort of blues type references that come through, and at a certain moment Ningala's voice has gone from a single position to totally surrounding the audience in the theatre, and then in the distance the cavalry coming over the hill are the Blind Boys of Alabama with this beautiful chant, and it's a magic moment for me."

PG: "One of my favourite moments in the film is the end piece. There are two actresses who play the grandmother and mother in the film and they are..um..mother and daughter in real life, and the provided some singing and..er..did some beautiful phrases that we then laced into the track and..er..infact Stephen Hague has also worked on a remix of..of the track. It's very soulful because when you hear it in isolation it doesn't sound immediately familiar, but put on a backdrop, and there seem to be quite a lot of, sort of blues type references that come through, and at a certain moment Ningala's voice has gone from a single position to totally surrounding the audience in the theatre, and then in the distance the cavalry coming over the hill are the Blind Boys of Alabama with this beautiful chant, and it's a magic moment for me."

PG: "I've been very lucky in that I have always worked with directors who love music, so it's been a very..er..pleasurable process, and in some ways there is a lot of responsibility that goes off your shoulders when you are working for somebody else. There's a lot of hassles and frustrations, as most of the world know, when working for someone else..um..At the same time, the fact that I can choose when to do it and when not to do it makes it much more enjoyable than having to do it all the time, and if I respect the project and the work and the person whom I'm trying to serve - no problem."

PG: "When you see a piece of film and attach two very different pieces of music to it you suddenly read other meanings into that film that you didn't expect. I mean, I think the average film goer , although they know they like music, rarely understand the emotional impact that a good score can have, and often a good score will be transparent and you just feel what's happening without really knowing that you are being steered or manipulated. I've learnt a lot from those directors who, you know, had a much better sense, sometimes, of what the music can do, and this is, sort of, soundtrack number three, effectively, so still very much learning.