Small Town Rising

The smug tranquillity of the Victorian town of Strong Lake is shattered when the Mayor’s daughter is reportedly raped by a half-caste [sic]. The ‘alleged incident’ provokes a startling sequence of events from which few in the town emerge untouched.

Compassionate and merciless, Small Town Rising explores the prejudices and motivations of small town dwellers and finds within a wild mosaic that is a reflection of the attitudes, ideals and reactions of the country as a whole.

The encounters that both adults and children have with racial and sexual prejudices show how deeply conservative Australians have become; how it is only an outrageous sense of the ridiculous and the small rebellions that enable the people to remain human.