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Thursday, 22 December 2011

Oranges and Sunshine

A quick post here to mention a film that I saw recently when down under, which I mean to mention in my blog post on the trip. Whilst at sea we had a nightly cinema on the go, and on one particular evening my wife and I went to see a film called Oranges and Sunshine. We had no idea what the film was about - it was billed as being about a social work scandal in Nottingham by the ship's entertainment team, and as we had nothing better to do we decided to kill a couple of hours watching it.

In fact, Oranges and Sunshine turned out to be one of the most powerful films I have seen in recent years. The social work scandal was something just a little bigger than expected - the story of Margaret Humphreys uncovering the British Government's home children scheme, to deport children to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other dominions around the world, and to bring it to the public's attention. Her efforts led to the formation of the Child Migrants Trust (www.childmigrantstrust.com), and eventually to an apology by the former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in February 2010, who apologised on behalf of the British Government for the scheme which was first implemented in Victorian Britain and continued until 1939. It's a fairly grim watch at times, but ultimately uplifting.

You may have already seen it, but if not, the DVD is available from Amazon for less than a fiver - if you haven't seen it I would thoroughly recommend it. Definitely one every genie should see...

UPDATE: Here's the trailer:



Chris
at

6 comments:

  1. Marian PressThursday, December 22, 2011 7:15:00 pm

    Chris: There is also a great book by Margaret Humphreys about how she uncovered the whole scandal, which I read some years ago. "Empty Cradles." 1996.

    Have a wonderful Christmas. Marian Press, Toronto.

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  2. Judy WebsterThursday, December 22, 2011 8:40:00 pm

    Chris, I agree. It is a wonderful movie. It gives a different perspective from "The Leaving of Liverpool", an equally powerful story that was on TV quite a few years ago.

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  3. Chris PatonThursday, December 22, 2011 9:08:00 pm

    Hi Marian - I think the film was based on that book, but will definitely get it!

    Judy - Will try to track down Leaving of Liverpool, thanks.

    (And Merry Christmas back!)

    Chris

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  4. AnonymousFriday, December 23, 2011 8:29:00 am

    Chris, the book is also now repacked under Oranges and Sunshine. Impressive, sad, courageous, horrifying, tragic!The things that were done to these children was beyond scandalous and being taken without permission to another country was just the tip of the iceberg.

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  5. Chris PatonFriday, December 23, 2011 9:43:00 am

    Thanks cassmob, will hunt down a copy.

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  6. MegSunday, December 25, 2011 9:46:00 pm

    Hi CHris. This film is great but Empty Cradles better. Some of my family were in this Child Migration and ended up at Fairbridge Pinjarra Western Australia. It took my cousin decades to find the family. Not all homes were abusive and this one was not. It did however make the children work hard. A sad story of misled idealism.

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