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.
