Alex Russell is set to star in Sons of Salt, the story of an ex-con trying to get his life together who is reluctantly drawn into a dangerous world by his pro-surfer brother. ..
This is the first feature from Five Lip Films (formerly Rockpool Films), the young collective made up of Nida grads Russell, James Elliot, and Sarah-Jane McAllan, plus Ande Cunningham and David O.Donnell (Waapa).
The five are back and forth between La and Sydney, and the shingle doesn't have a premises..
Last year Cunningham directed short film Oranges Don.t Grow on Trees, featuring Russell and Sarah Snook..
This Friday, the outfit will premiere their latest project, Picture Wheel.—.a short written and directed by O'Donnell and starring Russell and James Hoare (the upcoming Picnic at Hanging Rock mini).—.at California's Cinequest Festival.
James Hoare (centre back) in 'Picture Wheel'.
O'Donnell also wrote the script for Sons of Salt,...
This is the first feature from Five Lip Films (formerly Rockpool Films), the young collective made up of Nida grads Russell, James Elliot, and Sarah-Jane McAllan, plus Ande Cunningham and David O.Donnell (Waapa).
The five are back and forth between La and Sydney, and the shingle doesn't have a premises..
Last year Cunningham directed short film Oranges Don.t Grow on Trees, featuring Russell and Sarah Snook..
This Friday, the outfit will premiere their latest project, Picture Wheel.—.a short written and directed by O'Donnell and starring Russell and James Hoare (the upcoming Picnic at Hanging Rock mini).—.at California's Cinequest Festival.
James Hoare (centre back) in 'Picture Wheel'.
O'Donnell also wrote the script for Sons of Salt,...
- 3/1/2017
- by Harry Windsor
- IF.com.au
Alex Russell is set to star in Sons of Salt, the story of an ex-con trying to get his life together who is reluctantly drawn into a dangerous world by his pro-surfer brother. ..
This is the first feature from Five Lip Films (formerly Rockpool Films), the young collective made up of Nida grads Russell, James Elliot, and Sarah-Jane McAllan, plus Ande Cunningham and David O.Donnell (Waapa).
The five are back and forth between La and Sydney, and the shingle doesn't have a premises..
Last year Cunningham directed short film Oranges Don.t Grow on Trees, featuring Russell and Sarah Snook..
This Friday, the outfit will premiere their latest project, Picture Wheel.—.a short written and directed by O'Donnell and starring Russell and James Hoare (the upcoming Picnic at Hanging Rock mini).—.at California's Cinequest Festival.
James Hoare (centre back) in 'Picture Wheel'.
O'Donnell also wrote the script for Sons of Salt,...
This is the first feature from Five Lip Films (formerly Rockpool Films), the young collective made up of Nida grads Russell, James Elliot, and Sarah-Jane McAllan, plus Ande Cunningham and David O.Donnell (Waapa).
The five are back and forth between La and Sydney, and the shingle doesn't have a premises..
Last year Cunningham directed short film Oranges Don.t Grow on Trees, featuring Russell and Sarah Snook..
This Friday, the outfit will premiere their latest project, Picture Wheel.—.a short written and directed by O'Donnell and starring Russell and James Hoare (the upcoming Picnic at Hanging Rock mini).—.at California's Cinequest Festival.
James Hoare (centre back) in 'Picture Wheel'.
O'Donnell also wrote the script for Sons of Salt,...
- 3/1/2017
- by Harry Windsor
- IF.com.au
SYDNEY -- To call the production values of the Australian surfer documentary Bra Boys amateurish would be too kind. But there's something strangely compelling about the undiluted machismo of the culture it celebrates. It's a piece of unabashed myth-making from first-time writer-director Sunny Abberton, himself a member of the infamous surf tribe from the working-class beachside suburb of Maroubra, in Sydney.
Footage of world-class surfing and a hard-charging rock soundtrack should attract the niche wave-rider market overseas. The addition of Russell Crowe as narrator of some largely superfluous commentary gives it an imprimatur of professional cool. (Crowe will make his directorial debut with a film based on the docu later this year.) The film became Australia's highest-grossing non-IMAX documentary when it was released locally last year, making mainstream celebrities of its subjects. So far the film has done well at international fringe festivals.
One-eyed and technically inexperienced he may be, Abberton (co-directing with fellow Bra Boy Macario De Souza) is able to provide a raw insider's look into the way an aggressive, dysfunctional environment spawned this territorial clan of blood-brothers. With their penchant for bare-knuckled brawling and run-ins with the police, the Bra Boys have been making headlines in Australia since the mid-1990s. Abberton doesn't shy away from including amateur video of all-in street fights, yet the Bra Boys are generally portrayed as misunderstood outlaws rather than the thuggish gangsters of the authorities' vision.
The self-serving narrative soon zeros in on the Abberton brothers -- Sunny, Jai, pro surfer Koby and Dakota, the youngest. The boys, who have a heroin-addicted mother and three different fathers, find solace in the surf and in the company of other troubled kids from broken homes. We're taken inside a tight-knit community where stabbings, turf wars and police scrapes are as commonplace as the surfing and beach parties that show off the Bra Boys' playful side.
The well-publicized controversies include a 2003 murder trial, in which Jai was charged with, and later acquitted of, killing a fellow Bra Boy and standover man, while Koby was charged with being an accessory.
The narrative is ramshackle, a seemingly ad hoc collection of badly edited talking-head interviews and wobbly, unfocused footage, punctuated by Gothic intertitles mirroring the style of gang members' tattoos. The objectivity of an autobiographical documentary has to be questioned, but it's unlikely a stranger could get the subjects to speak with such candor.
BRA BOYS
Berkela Films
Bradahood Prods./Garage Industries
Sales: Hopscotch Prods.
Credits:
Directors: Sunny Abberton, Macario De Souza
Writer: Sunny Abberton
Producers: Sunny Abberton, Michael Lawrence
Executive producers: Jason Bergh, Sal Masakela, Michael Lythcott, Nicholas Cook, Michael Lawrence, John Mossop
Directors of photography: Macario De Souza, Brook Silvester
Music: Jamie Holt
Narrator: Russell Crowe
Editor: Macario De Souza
Running time -- 85 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Footage of world-class surfing and a hard-charging rock soundtrack should attract the niche wave-rider market overseas. The addition of Russell Crowe as narrator of some largely superfluous commentary gives it an imprimatur of professional cool. (Crowe will make his directorial debut with a film based on the docu later this year.) The film became Australia's highest-grossing non-IMAX documentary when it was released locally last year, making mainstream celebrities of its subjects. So far the film has done well at international fringe festivals.
One-eyed and technically inexperienced he may be, Abberton (co-directing with fellow Bra Boy Macario De Souza) is able to provide a raw insider's look into the way an aggressive, dysfunctional environment spawned this territorial clan of blood-brothers. With their penchant for bare-knuckled brawling and run-ins with the police, the Bra Boys have been making headlines in Australia since the mid-1990s. Abberton doesn't shy away from including amateur video of all-in street fights, yet the Bra Boys are generally portrayed as misunderstood outlaws rather than the thuggish gangsters of the authorities' vision.
The self-serving narrative soon zeros in on the Abberton brothers -- Sunny, Jai, pro surfer Koby and Dakota, the youngest. The boys, who have a heroin-addicted mother and three different fathers, find solace in the surf and in the company of other troubled kids from broken homes. We're taken inside a tight-knit community where stabbings, turf wars and police scrapes are as commonplace as the surfing and beach parties that show off the Bra Boys' playful side.
The well-publicized controversies include a 2003 murder trial, in which Jai was charged with, and later acquitted of, killing a fellow Bra Boy and standover man, while Koby was charged with being an accessory.
The narrative is ramshackle, a seemingly ad hoc collection of badly edited talking-head interviews and wobbly, unfocused footage, punctuated by Gothic intertitles mirroring the style of gang members' tattoos. The objectivity of an autobiographical documentary has to be questioned, but it's unlikely a stranger could get the subjects to speak with such candor.
BRA BOYS
Berkela Films
Bradahood Prods./Garage Industries
Sales: Hopscotch Prods.
Credits:
Directors: Sunny Abberton, Macario De Souza
Writer: Sunny Abberton
Producers: Sunny Abberton, Michael Lawrence
Executive producers: Jason Bergh, Sal Masakela, Michael Lythcott, Nicholas Cook, Michael Lawrence, John Mossop
Directors of photography: Macario De Souza, Brook Silvester
Music: Jamie Holt
Narrator: Russell Crowe
Editor: Macario De Souza
Running time -- 85 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 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
- 3/28/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
SYDNEY -- A mockumentary and a documentary have set the Australian boxoffice alight with their opening weekends after a quiet start to the year for Australian films, according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.
The comedy "Razzle Dazzle" and documentary "Bra Boys" took nearly AUS$1 million ($800,000) between them in the four days ending March 18, breaking local opening records along the way, the distributors said.
"Bra Boys", narrated by Russell Crowe, is an insider's look at the turbulent lives of professional surfers the Abberton brothers, who come from the impoverished Sydney beachside suburb of Maroubra and are part of the Bra Boys, a notorious local gang.
The story of the Abbertons, two of who faced charges linked to murder while filming, also details the Bra Boys' role as peacemakers in Sydney's race riots in 2006 and showcases their abilities as world champion big wave riders.
Made by Sunny Abberton and fellow Bra Boy Marcario de Souza, the documentary took a whopping AUS$423,391 ($338,000) for a per-screen average of AUS$8,308 ($6,646) and broke records as the biggest opening-day release for an Australian docu.
The comedy "Razzle Dazzle" and documentary "Bra Boys" took nearly AUS$1 million ($800,000) between them in the four days ending March 18, breaking local opening records along the way, the distributors said.
"Bra Boys", narrated by Russell Crowe, is an insider's look at the turbulent lives of professional surfers the Abberton brothers, who come from the impoverished Sydney beachside suburb of Maroubra and are part of the Bra Boys, a notorious local gang.
The story of the Abbertons, two of who faced charges linked to murder while filming, also details the Bra Boys' role as peacemakers in Sydney's race riots in 2006 and showcases their abilities as world champion big wave riders.
Made by Sunny Abberton and fellow Bra Boy Marcario de Souza, the documentary took a whopping AUS$423,391 ($338,000) for a per-screen average of AUS$8,308 ($6,646) and broke records as the biggest opening-day release for an Australian docu.
- 3/21/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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