THE SAPPHIRES

Director's Statement
"When I read this script I feel the energy and emotion pulsing in my veins.

The Sapphires are four black twenty-something women who for one brief period of time, have an opportunity to transcend beyond the circumstances they're born into and reach their full potential not only as musical talents but more so as human beings.

In Australia 1968, the racial divide was significant.

Aboriginal people had just got the right to vote. My own Nana died in 1966… she died in her own country classed as an outsider.

In our film, these outside girls match their talent with sheer will and through the eyes of an Irish man, and on the heartbeat of soul music, they get plucked from obscurity to sing for the soldiers in Vietnam. Through this chance of a lifetime they find themselves momentarily free.

Soul music is one of the defining elements in the project. My family grew up on the sounds of Aretha and Marvin, Sly and the Family Stone. Yet the true power of this music is that all classes of people love this music. It is infectious.

It remains with you and becomes you.

THE SAPPHIRES is inspired by a true story, and it possesses all the qualities of ordinary people achieving amazing things in extraordinary circumstances. Four sexy, young, talented, black, strong women, make a decision and take a chance.

A chance my Nana never had, but through her tenacity and strength of character, now… I do."

-Wayne Blair

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