One doc you don’t want to judge by its name: Bra Boys

Since when did surfing culture get mixed up with gangsterism? Bra Boys, an aussie documentary film opening on April 11th in New York City at The Quad Theatre, L.A. and a half dozen screens in surfland Hawaii, appears to demonstrate that this merger of sport and lifestyle is not a social phenomenon – it’s a way of life. Know for hot temperament, Russell Crowe narrates the docu – a project that he is actually developing as a feature-length film. Crowe brought his Bra Boys project to Universal Pictures with Stuart Beattie and Grazer producing.

Written, directed and produced by Sunny Abberton, himself a childhood resident of Maroubra’s public housing projects, the docu traces the cultural evolution of the much maligned — and tattooed — youthful surfing community, and in particular the Abberton brothers: Sunny, Koby, Jai and Dakota, one charged with murdering a Sydney “standover man” (Australian slang for an extortionist who uses physical violence, or threats, to extract payment on behalf of another), another pursuing a professional surf career but charged as an accessory in his brother’s murder trial, another trying to hold the family together, and the youngest brother — whose sole inheritance is his siblings’ national notoriety.