Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Bra Boys (2007)

play May contain names, images or voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
clip 'Place of thunder' education content clip 1

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

This clip uses voice-over narration by Russell Crowe and a montage of etchings, drawings, photographs and video footage to chronicle the complex social and cultural history of the Maroubra area. It begins by describing first contact between European culture and the local Eora Aboriginal people in 1770 and ends with the present-day surf culture. It details the history of urban development from settlement and convict history to 1930s migration of Sydney’s poor and unemployed to the bay and the construction of public housing adjacent to the beaches.

It also features significant landmarks, such as the sewage treatment plant, a rifle range and Sydney’s Long Bay gaol, which further contextualise the socio-cultural landscape. It describes current youth culture and the local attachment to place, especially the beach. The clip concludes by introducing the film’s three main characters – Abberton brothers Sunny, Koby and Jai – and the local beach tribe they belong to, the Bra Boys.

Curator’s notes

by Poppy De Souza

The passages in Bra Boys narrated by Russell Crowe are quite different in feel to the rest of the documentary. They condense a large amount of information into a short segment and give a broader cultural context to the story of the Abberton brothers. These episodes feel like they were added late in the piece and sometimes interrupt the flow of the story. However, this clip provides, at the opening moments of the film, a solid history of the Maroubra area for audiences unfamiliar with the region’s backstory. It sets the story of the Abbertons against a backdrop of poverty, social alienation, struggle and tribalism. In doing so, it establishes the seeds of empathy and identification with the film’s three subjects, who themselves are acutely aware of the social forces which have formed their identity (see clip two).

The narration in the clip presents the Bra Boys as a beach tribe. Crowe mentions the word 'tribe’ five times in the final sentences of the clip, emphasising the importance of place and land in the group’s cohesion. Later in the film, Sunny shows how this strong association with place and their desire to protect it is what triggers the violence they participate in (see clip two).

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip from the documentary Bra Boys gives a brief history of Maroubra, the Abberton brothers and the Maroubra surf tribe, the Bra Boys. Images from etchings, paintings and an animation illustrate Maroubra’s earliest history. Archival film and stills reveal the evolution of a disadvantaged modern community. The Abberton boys are introduced as well as their tribe, the ‘Bra Boys’. The clip concludes with black-and-white images of previous generations of Maroubra beach tribes. Fast-paced narration by actor Russell Crowe accompanied by acoustic guitar music and sound effects are used to build tension.

Educational value points

  • The clip is taken from the start of a documentary designed to provide a voice for and to valorise a surfing subculture by showing an insider point of view. Sunny Abberton, eldest of the Abberton brothers, notable members of the Bra Boys, wrote, produced and directed the film in part to counteract the notoriety the surfing gang had achieved through violent clashes with public and police in the 1990s. His brother’s 2003 arrest for murder changed the film’s focus.
  • A narrative montage sets the historical and cultural background for the story of a surfing subculture with rapidly changing images of historic photographs, etchings and watercolours as well as animation and film footage. Actor Russell Crowe’s (1964–) distinctive voice-over narration conveys a sympathetic viewpoint. Film of a campfire introduces the Abberton brothers and surfing, and beach scenes introduce the modern story of the Bra Boys beach tribe.
  • The selection of images and the language of the narration paint Maroubra as an embattled and disadvantaged suburb. Government relocation of the poor to government housing is shown and the film suggests that the building of a sewage plant and rifle range serves to keep them contained. Long Bay Gaol’s ‘constant warning’ adds to the disempowerment of the community. A broken window frames the view as Maroubra’s social problems are recounted.
  • The clip positions the Eora people, the original inhabitants of the eastern beaches region of Sydney, as the first group to be marginalised and impoverished in the Maroubra area. By the late 1880s urban development had largely extinguished their rich artistic and material way of life. They died out or dispersed. Some who remained joined unemployed white people during the Great Depression living in Happy Valley, a sandhills shanty town.
  • The second half of the clip sketches out the film’s premise that the surf culture offered both an escape for Maroubra’s youth and a surrogate family for the beach tribes to compensate for parental and community neglect. The Abberton brothers are shown as an example and their success as surfers is documented. A series of images shows a succession of Maroubra’s beach ‘tribes’, under different names, who challenged authority and asserted their cultural identity.