Bra Boys, a documentary featuring Koby Abberton and his brothers Sunny, Jai and Dakota, premiering in early March. This doco is gonna blow minds out there in the non-surfing world; it might even blow yours. The Bra Boys are core members of the boardrider’s club at Maroubra, Australia, a tough beach suburb of Sydney made tougher by a history of poverty and social neglect. “Maroubra” in Aboriginal means “place of thunder,” a reference to summer storms that gather over the low-lying area. It’s a metaphor for the human storms unleashed among its inhabitants. There’s fistfights galore in this flick, shot home-movie fashion over the years and put together without complication by director Sunny and a couple of film-editor mates. There’s a bit of back-story about Maroubra, the suburb and surf zone. But mostly there’s the tale of what happened after Jai and psychotic local boy enforcer Tony Hines got in a car together one night, and Jai, threatened by Hines, shot him to death and dumped his body off Maroubra’s northern cliff. Jai was charged with murder, Koby with related crimes. The brotherhood was tested to its limits, but somehow with this film, the Abbertons are turning it all into a positive. Koby’s reaped a huge amount of friendly press in Australia, proving the old thing about everyone secretly loving a bad boy. (Not so secretly in Paris Hilton’s case.) Movie star Russell Crowe seems to have sensed a PR opportunity here and pitches in with some narration, though he recently asked for his name to be removed from the producer’s credits. This might be a wise move; after all, Russ may like to look tough, but he’s not a Bra Boy.
Go to braboys.com.au for more.