Who got along to the big Premier last night and what'd you think?
Personally I dug it, thought Mr Carrol and Mr Hynde's segment was a classic and that the Rock'n'Roll red carpet session with the Banditos and old Rusty was a trip.
SNP was shooting all the action like a postal worker on speed, so I'll hit him up for some pics and see if I can post em later.
BRA BOYS Premier
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OK
I went. Here is a review. it's long but the film p!ssed me off. Oh, and ol' NickNack makes an appearance
Clif
The film uncritically documents the history of Maroubra Beach and the Bra Boys. Some grew up in the housing commission estates that border the south end of Maroubra Beach. Overall, Maroubra Beach is painted as a home away from home. As producer Sunny Abberton says: ‘ Maroubra Beach has been Mum and Dad to so many kids” And the ‘brotherhood’ a family many of the members never had. The film sets up a classic working-class narrative of a hard luck story where young men struggle against the odds to make it good.
Since I study film stuff I decided to go to the premiere, even though I had reservations about what and who I was supporting, as you will see.
I arrived with my girlfriend and some friends and we were confronted by crowd barriers, a plethora of security guards, people with headphones running around dressed in black (as all good film people should), and innumerable crew with those funny swinging passes around their necks - you see these passes at music festivals and the like allowing 'access all areas'. No, we didn't get a swinging pass, but we would have looked cool if we did.
We went for quick drink elsewhere while everyone waited for the Bra Boys to arrive. When we returned there was quite a crowd inside the theatre. But we weren't in yet. First we had to go through two sets of bag and security checks. It was a nice touch, and gave the impression we were 'dangerous' or in the presence of a 'dangerous gang' where retaliatory attacks are possible. Mind you, the glamorous state theatre is hardly downtown LA. Also, looking around I didn't see anyone who even remotely looked dangerous.
There were lots of girls dressed up in short skirts and very high heels, and blokes in open neck shirts and suits who looked like reject players from 'The Footy Show'. I was shocked to find that faux mohawks are still in. Plenty of 'trendy' Eastern Suburbs / Bondi were present - it's important to be scene [Woops, I mean 'seen'] I have to say, in my dunlop volleys, jeans and t-shirt I felt very under-dressed: was this a 'surf movie launch' or what? Plenty of people milled around, hanging over the ornate balconies and drinking. Star Koby Abberton had a tuxedo on, open at the neck to make sure everyone saw his tatto: 'my brothers keeper' around his neck. Branding is important. I couldn't see his Bondi Blonde tattoo.
We managed to grab a beer and head inside the theatre to our seats. Which were not crash hot. Those old theatres have stupid carvings, lights and cleverly 'constructed walls that mean you go 'wow this is so ritzy', while you cannot see properly from anywhere but directly in front of the screen. I kept getting distracted by the naked woman in a toga carved into the wall blocking part of my view. By the end of the night I thought she was hot. I blame it on the beers. All in all the premiere should have been held in it a big multi-plex,. Better picture and sound,huge fucking screen, popcorn, choctops. But that wouldn't have given the right impression: 'we've made it in this town, look where our film is'.
After a few thankyous from the producers and distributers next to the 'Bondi Blonde' beer signs we were nearly off and running. Acknowledgment though was respectfully made to the Aboriginal owners of the land by an Aboriginal film maker from La Perouse: a suburb next to Maroubra. Then some more thankyous - get going already. I guess I had the hot toga woman to ogle anyway.
The lights dim. The film starts by providing a narration about Maroubra's history by Russell Crowe. His deep masculine gravely voice giving weight to the seriousness and significance of the history (lower your tone as you read that sentence).
There is a focus on Aboriginal history in the area, and I'm left wondering if this is a genuine attempt to acknowledge Aboriginal history, or the Bra Boys are making the mistaken assumption of comparing themselves to the Aboriginal's history in the area. And assuming they too know what colonisation and exploitation feel like. Unlike them, I do not believe the Bra Boys' history ties into the Aboriginal history in some simple way, even though this section works to suggest this. The Bra Boys cultural history also ties into Australian culture's history of colonisation, displacement and assimilation of the Aboriginal people. Funny, old Russell doesn't mention that.
As the film progresses it documents the rise of the Bra Boys 'brotherhood' from the early days of 'Ma's hell Team' (Ma is the Abberton's Grandma). Several of the Bra Boys come from broken families, and poverty. A particular working-class and decrepit urban imaginary of Maroubra is set up. The film regularly refers to Long Bay Jail, police helicopters, cuts from street brawls, and the housing commission estate. Interviews with key members are done on a hill overlooking the housing commission estate, and in front of broken windows and graffiti. This semiotic game adds to the Bra Boys credibility of being ‘tough’ and from the wrong side of the tracks so to speak.
Noticably absent from the movie’s images are the last decade’s gentrification of Maroubra - the cafes, boardwalk, expensive apartments, and so on. The innumerable multi-million dollar houses are never shown. To evidence such gentrification and wealth would undermine the thematic of ‘Maroubra as ghetto’. In actual fact, for many years the area came under the jurisdiction and care of long-serving NSW premier Bob Carr. investment in Maroubra was strong, including an effective public transport system, and substantial recreation facilities. Combined with the beach the suburb of Maroubra wasn’t that bad a place to grow up in, far better than, say, the inland suburbs of Macquarie Fields, Waterloo, Blacktown or Redfern . These suburbs experience far higher crime rates, unemployment, and youth disadvantage. Also absent is the aspirational nature of many of the Bra Boys who nowadays are regularly seen sipping coffees in the many cafes, owning beach-front properties, and the like. No interviews in the cafes by the way, but there are some of Koby in his apartment overlooking the whole of Maroubra Beach and them riding around on twenty thousand dollar jetskis.
The difference between the image being sold, and believed, by the Bra Boys and what actually happens is far more complex than the 'documentary' makers deal with. I am not saying there is no disadvantage and poverty in Maroubra, but that the relationship between class, geography, gentrification, change, and aspiration is never clear cut. And the 'documentary' chooses to ignore this in favour of a simple us vs them narrative - working-class/disadvantaged vs the rest of the world.
Importantly, to get across this narrative the 'documenatry' focuses on the the Abberton family, who do come from poverty and a disadvantaged background. But there is no sight of or discussion of the hundreds of other members who they claim to be part of the brotherhood, this would have diluted the effectiveness of the 'documentary's' pitch of a 'hard life' because I hazard a guess that some of them come from normal family homes and middle-class wealth.
This portrayal of Maroubra and the Bra boys as 'tough' is supported by key violent events highlighted in the film, such as how in December 2002 thirty off-duty police officers were injured in a fight with the Bra Boys. The film shows extensive footage of the brawl, which happened at Bra Boy Mark Matthew’s 21st birthday at Coogee-Randwick RSL. Throughout the film every time the police are ridiculed (without a right of reply) and a fight shown huge cheers go up from the crowd. And there are plenty of fights. It's obviously cool to be violent, it proves you belong, can get a tattoo, and be a 'Bra Boy'. There is no mention of the innumerable assaults and intimidation of people at Maroubra, for things like parking their car where the Bra Boys want to park (I have seen this first hand). Or like when some young Bra Boys supposedly beat on members of a University Christian Youth Group while they were having an end of year BBQ in the park.
Throughout the 'documentary' the Bra Boys constantly reiterate the point that they have to 'defend' their beach, particularly from other gangs. So they carry baseball bats about. I don't know about you, but I have lived in some rough fucking areas, but I never carried a fucking baseball bat around. Perhaps because I wasn't spoiling for a fight. Also, why do the Bra Boys think other groups of blokes arrive at their beach prepared to fight in the first place? So that 'they' can feel safe in light of intimidation by the Bra Boys from the outset. The Bra Boys don't think about how their attitude makes others feel unsafe.
Like I mentioned before, there is no footage of how the Bra Boys assault and intimidate other surfers at Maroubra, and even other beaches. These assault can be for no other reason than you looked at them or caught a wave they wanted. Tracks Magazine Editor comes up on the screen claiming it is just good old localism, and blokes with a history at a beach expressing pride in it. He even says that 'without localism' all order at surfing beaches would fall apart. He's wrong, and merely provides an excuse for the Bra Boy's violence in the surfing culture. Crew manage to share waves and cope with each other all the time without violence and intimidation. Some surfers respect each bloke in the water, and share waves. A hoot here and a smile there actually work to regulate the lineup, so does skill. But the editor finds it easier to support the Bra Boys version of localism and to ensure that violent localism is the the only way to go. And don't fucking tell me I'm being utopian about how lineups can work differently. I see alternative ways of regulating lineups happen every day on beaches around Australia. It' s just that they are not validated like violent localism. It's not that localism and pride in your beach is wrong, it's how it is expressed that is important.
The film also documents the Cronulla Riots, and the Bra Boys role in it. On December 12, 2005, the day after the Cronulla riot, there was a fight with a crew of Lebanese-Australian men. Bra Boy 'Froggy' took on a heap of thugs from the Western Suburbs. Beaten and bloody he looks at the camera and says 'its nothin'. The cinema crowd cheers. Classic alpha-masculinity theme where a bloke doesn't take a backward step. The Bra Boys make sure they tell us that the crew from the inland suburbs ran away when they turned up. No interviews with Lebanese-Australians are shown, funny that. The Bra Boys eventually met the Australian Islamic Friendship Association and the Lebanese-Australian dominated Commancheros bikie gang to explain that they had nothing to do with the riot, and made fun of the Cronulla local crew for ‘biting off more than they could chew’. The Bra Boys claim they brokered the peace, even though the violence had already subsided , the police had control of the situation, key community members from throughout Sydney had already met and spoken to their people to stop the violence, and so on. Nah, the Bra Boys 'saved' Maroubra. No mention is made of the fact that aa Bra Boy had said publicly that such a thing wouldn't happen at Maroubra because his boys wouldn't allow it'. Nor is it considered that the thugs from the western suburbs might have chosen Maroubra because of that quote, and to prove that westies can kick surfer ass. Also, no mention is made of the massive amounts of work that has been done in Cronulla and elsewhere to fight racism and help communities heal.
The Bra Boys reckon they have it all sorted of course. They repeatedly state the ethnic diversity of their brotherhood, to prove that they are not racist. But they make the mistaken assumption that racism is only White. As cultural Anthropologist Ghassan Hage writes:
the division of people as good and bad relies on a common racist conception of racism as always white … [however], everybody can be racist. White people of a European background do not have a monopoly on racist beliefs and attitudes; it is a feature of all cultures
Just because they have ethnic diversity in the brotherhood, it doesn't mean they can't be, and are not, racist at times. And it certainly doesn't mean that they don't chase people away from their beach for similar reasons to the Cronulla locals. The Cronulla Riots were not just about 'racism', and if the Bra Boys were really concerned about what happened they would have bothered to find this out.
That said, parts of the film does develop empathy with the Abbertons, and contradict some of the thuggish representations the film glorifies.
In their book ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ Angela Kamper and Charles Miranda document the murder case of Jai Abberton, a high-profile Bra Boy. He was acquitted from charges related to murdering Anthony Hines. Hines was another Bra Boy known to be a drug dealer, rapist and stand-over man. Professional surfer Koby Abberton, Jai’s brother, went on trial for accessory to murder. This part of the film is done well. And Sunny Abberton takes us into his private life. It's a devastating part of his family's history. Jai and Koby get off from the charges but the effects on their private life are significant. And I admired Jai's ability to resist rubbishing Hines on film, and his decorum in relation to the affair. The film does not look at Hines' life, and only focuses on the Abbertons. Jai comes out looking squeaky clean but questions are left unanswered about his relationship with Hines. In effect this part of the film make the audience empathise with the Abberton family, and by extension the Bra Boys. It's a shame the filmmakers didn't look at how other Bra Boys felt about the incidence, what happened, and how it affected their sense of brotherhood.
Also, throughout the film the repeated return to the importance of the Abberton's Grandma also provokes empathy the boys. An amazing lady who through hardwork and patience looks after a heap of kids as they grow up in Maroubra. Her funeral in the film is heavy.
Macca De Souza should be complimented on his ability to capture the family emotions and trauma. They're the best sections of the film.
However, that said, these two empathetic events heavily contradict the rest of the film and its bravado, macho posturing, and misinformation. These sections of the film help the audience think that these are just poor misunderstood boys. But I couldn't shake the feeling that the boys have put their 'Ma' in an unfortunate position. Her story, rather than being valued for her life in and of itself, works to try and gain empathy for the Bra Boys. When in actual fact I felt empathy for their Ma. The section comes across as saying 'We're not that bad really' instead of getting across the love for their Ma like it could have.
The blokes sitting behind me cheered when the film returned to the larrikanism, violence, surfing and bonding. The previous sections were not the surfing film they expected, I guess. But they were the most interesting.
The bonding and mateship in the film is central to its success. It makes those watching the film feel like they are inside the bonding process to, and they begin to identify with the Bra Boys. But to accept this position ignores the fact that this very same process of bonding actually builds walls between groups and the rest of the society, and belies the fact that those in the cinema will never belong to the Bra Boys no matter how well the film allows them to 'join in'. The bonding process the 'documentary' shows actually works to put everyone else 'outside belonging' unless the Bra Boys say you're OK. It works to give them authority at the expense of others.
The film clearly demonstrates the processes and myths that allow blokes to bond into close-knit groups, and can see them withdraw from the rest of society. This ‘brotherhood’ fight together, surf together, support each other, and the older blokes offer guidance to the boys.Throughout the film Bra Boys repeatedly refer to particularly particular versions of respect, brotherhood, honour and loyalty. The Bra Boys film actually illustrates how easy it is to be swept in quite an ugly version of surfing, mateship and masculinity. Even though the members of the Bra Boys would not call it ugly, because they have grown up in and of course have come to believe the version of the values they promote.
Some key rules and values that demonstrate the values they became familiar with are that a young bloke must show ‘courage’ by catching dangerous and large waves. The Bra Boys protege in the film illustrates this when he says Koby told him that if he doesn't charge he can walk home. A young bloke must also demonstrate their loyalty by backing their mates up in a fight. Even though the fights the Bra Boys get involved in are by and large unneccessary. When a newcomer wants to join in it has to be on the group’s terms. If he steps out-of-line by not taking off on a dangerous wave or not getting involved in a fight he’s be mocked, abused or even beaten up. The cruelty acts as a test, and the film has an interview of a boy's mum who approves of this behaviour because the Bra Boys are 'looking after' her son. Well, mum, it could be done differently, like, through supporting him without conditions. It’s a process of bastardization and bullying that the younger blokes grow to accept, and in turn perpetuate because ‘that’s how you learned and it did you no harm’ [well, supposedly].
This means that they regularly get into strife with others because they have a learned habit of resorting to, and justifying, violence as a way to put things ‘right’ when they feel that they aren’t. They learn that they are expected to stick up for each other to chase off outsiders – people their mates claim need to be taught a lesson. And everyone but their group are ‘outsiders’. As one Bra Boys states: We’re just a group of mates who love surfing and we protect our beach … we don’t want outsiders coming in’. The young blokes learn to hate who their mates hate, and when they have bonded they seem to act first and think later.
What the film reveals in the Bra Boys is a passive acceptance of particular interpretations of honour, respect and loyalty/mateship. In many cases it was the only interpretation they were offered, hence their uncritical acceptance. They then go on to espouse these traits, and romanticise them in film, without reflecting on how their version of them causes their problems in the first place. The attitudes the film continues to promote disguise, perpetuate and reproduce an ‘us and them’ mentality that limits opportunities for younger member of the group, and validates a violent form of mateship.
While the Bra Boys film suggests that their version is the only way to survive for them; there are better ways to do loyalty, respect and honour that could work also.
Loyalty can actually mean looking after your brother so they don’t get into stupid fights in the first place, it’s not about joining in regardless of whether your brother is in the right or not. Honour can mean paying attention the difference of others and their needs at the beach, not just your own. Respect can mean more than tolerance of others as long as they are subservient to your way of doing things.
At the end of the film they even say that 'everyone is welcome at the beach, as long as they respect our history and culture'. But just because they were fortunate enough to grow up next to the beach does that give them rights to respect of 'their' history over others? What about the kids who work all week, get up at 4am on a Sunday to catch trains and buses to go for a surf at Maroubra? Oh, their background is not as important as the Bra Boys history and culture being screamed from the rooftops.
According to the Bra Boys if you give respect you’ll get it. But that’s not really true. The respect is one way because the Bra Boys way is considered the authentic or authoritative way to do things. Other cultural and ethnic ways of doing things can be done, but they will be tolerated rather than be on equal footing with the local version. This tolerance relied on the outsider being subservient to local rules and privilege. In his work Toleration (1997), Preston King points out
There is something intolerable about the concept of ‘tolerance’. For if one concedes or promotes a power to tolerate, one equally concedes a power not to tolerate (p. 6).
The Bra Boy's version of respect sets them up as legislators and guardians of their own laws, and perpetuates a very narrow set of rules about how things can be done. Little or no effort is made to understand how others might see and feel things differently, or have different needs. They have no rights unless the Bra Boys give them some. Those who are not respected are those who begin to develop a will of their own and move beyond the turf that is allotted to them, anyone not a Bra Boy.
Quite simply the Bra Boys sell a story that people who don't surf want to hear. The 'documentary' is anything but a documentary. It works more as a propaganda and a marketing tool more than anything else. In all honesty, I left the film seething . My girlfriend didn't hear me speak the whole way home. These blokes portray and exploit surfing in an ugly way. They promote violence, being a thug, intimidation, double standards, misinformation, disrespect, and the like.
The film works to sell a Bra Boys’ story to the world. Under the guidance of the advertising gurus John and Jack Singleton the film begins a myth-making exercise that cashes in on the anti-hero ethos of surfing, albeit upping the ante and bringing it into the 21st century - ‘more shocking, tougher, meaner and badder’. Many surfers have moved beyond the ‘counter-culture’ imaginary, which is now packaged and sold to them. Other surfers know its all hype. Nevertheless, the film works to sell the Bra Boys’ line of clothing [MBK Soldiers] and makes their surfing and beer sponsors happy. And turns their tattoos into a piece of branding. IThe Bra Boys then become a signifier for all that’s ‘tough’ about urban surfing, or the stereotype that non-surfers like to read about.
The media – and the audience at the State Theatre – swallow it hook, line and sinker.
At the end of the film a raffle was held to raise money for a bus to bring disadvantaged kids from the Western Suburbs to the beach. The very same crew the Bra Boys have intimidated, bullied and ridiculed over the years. It's a nice gesture I guess. But I can tell you, I wouldn't want my kids looking up to these blokes as 'role models' or 'mentors'. Their take on life isn't crash hot, even though they want us to think otherwise. Maybe they should take the money they raised for the bus and travel out to the Western Suburbs and live with the kids there for awhile. I think they have more to learn than the kids they want to 'help'. It would actually do the Bra Boys good, and show them how Maroubra ain't that bad after all.
If people think there is no alternative to 'brotherhoods' like the Bra Boys, you're wrong. There are surfing ‘brotherhoods’ who do things differently, and ask ‘what can I do for surfing rather than what can surfing do for me?’ These are groups of surfers who have taken time to think about engaging with the world (not pulling away from it), re-evaluated what being a man is, and now use their bonding/solidarity to fight dodgy developments, help people in third world countries, start up surf schools for disadvantaged youth without blaring it all over the media, and the like. Now they’re surfers worth getting stoked about. If you want to know the alternative ‘brotherhoods’ of surfing you could do worse than check out Surf Aid International and the Surfrider Foundation.
I went. Here is a review. it's long but the film p!ssed me off. Oh, and ol' NickNack makes an appearance
Clif
The film uncritically documents the history of Maroubra Beach and the Bra Boys. Some grew up in the housing commission estates that border the south end of Maroubra Beach. Overall, Maroubra Beach is painted as a home away from home. As producer Sunny Abberton says: ‘ Maroubra Beach has been Mum and Dad to so many kids” And the ‘brotherhood’ a family many of the members never had. The film sets up a classic working-class narrative of a hard luck story where young men struggle against the odds to make it good.
Since I study film stuff I decided to go to the premiere, even though I had reservations about what and who I was supporting, as you will see.
I arrived with my girlfriend and some friends and we were confronted by crowd barriers, a plethora of security guards, people with headphones running around dressed in black (as all good film people should), and innumerable crew with those funny swinging passes around their necks - you see these passes at music festivals and the like allowing 'access all areas'. No, we didn't get a swinging pass, but we would have looked cool if we did.
We went for quick drink elsewhere while everyone waited for the Bra Boys to arrive. When we returned there was quite a crowd inside the theatre. But we weren't in yet. First we had to go through two sets of bag and security checks. It was a nice touch, and gave the impression we were 'dangerous' or in the presence of a 'dangerous gang' where retaliatory attacks are possible. Mind you, the glamorous state theatre is hardly downtown LA. Also, looking around I didn't see anyone who even remotely looked dangerous.
There were lots of girls dressed up in short skirts and very high heels, and blokes in open neck shirts and suits who looked like reject players from 'The Footy Show'. I was shocked to find that faux mohawks are still in. Plenty of 'trendy' Eastern Suburbs / Bondi were present - it's important to be scene [Woops, I mean 'seen'] I have to say, in my dunlop volleys, jeans and t-shirt I felt very under-dressed: was this a 'surf movie launch' or what? Plenty of people milled around, hanging over the ornate balconies and drinking. Star Koby Abberton had a tuxedo on, open at the neck to make sure everyone saw his tatto: 'my brothers keeper' around his neck. Branding is important. I couldn't see his Bondi Blonde tattoo.
We managed to grab a beer and head inside the theatre to our seats. Which were not crash hot. Those old theatres have stupid carvings, lights and cleverly 'constructed walls that mean you go 'wow this is so ritzy', while you cannot see properly from anywhere but directly in front of the screen. I kept getting distracted by the naked woman in a toga carved into the wall blocking part of my view. By the end of the night I thought she was hot. I blame it on the beers. All in all the premiere should have been held in it a big multi-plex,. Better picture and sound,huge fucking screen, popcorn, choctops. But that wouldn't have given the right impression: 'we've made it in this town, look where our film is'.
After a few thankyous from the producers and distributers next to the 'Bondi Blonde' beer signs we were nearly off and running. Acknowledgment though was respectfully made to the Aboriginal owners of the land by an Aboriginal film maker from La Perouse: a suburb next to Maroubra. Then some more thankyous - get going already. I guess I had the hot toga woman to ogle anyway.
The lights dim. The film starts by providing a narration about Maroubra's history by Russell Crowe. His deep masculine gravely voice giving weight to the seriousness and significance of the history (lower your tone as you read that sentence).
There is a focus on Aboriginal history in the area, and I'm left wondering if this is a genuine attempt to acknowledge Aboriginal history, or the Bra Boys are making the mistaken assumption of comparing themselves to the Aboriginal's history in the area. And assuming they too know what colonisation and exploitation feel like. Unlike them, I do not believe the Bra Boys' history ties into the Aboriginal history in some simple way, even though this section works to suggest this. The Bra Boys cultural history also ties into Australian culture's history of colonisation, displacement and assimilation of the Aboriginal people. Funny, old Russell doesn't mention that.
As the film progresses it documents the rise of the Bra Boys 'brotherhood' from the early days of 'Ma's hell Team' (Ma is the Abberton's Grandma). Several of the Bra Boys come from broken families, and poverty. A particular working-class and decrepit urban imaginary of Maroubra is set up. The film regularly refers to Long Bay Jail, police helicopters, cuts from street brawls, and the housing commission estate. Interviews with key members are done on a hill overlooking the housing commission estate, and in front of broken windows and graffiti. This semiotic game adds to the Bra Boys credibility of being ‘tough’ and from the wrong side of the tracks so to speak.
Noticably absent from the movie’s images are the last decade’s gentrification of Maroubra - the cafes, boardwalk, expensive apartments, and so on. The innumerable multi-million dollar houses are never shown. To evidence such gentrification and wealth would undermine the thematic of ‘Maroubra as ghetto’. In actual fact, for many years the area came under the jurisdiction and care of long-serving NSW premier Bob Carr. investment in Maroubra was strong, including an effective public transport system, and substantial recreation facilities. Combined with the beach the suburb of Maroubra wasn’t that bad a place to grow up in, far better than, say, the inland suburbs of Macquarie Fields, Waterloo, Blacktown or Redfern . These suburbs experience far higher crime rates, unemployment, and youth disadvantage. Also absent is the aspirational nature of many of the Bra Boys who nowadays are regularly seen sipping coffees in the many cafes, owning beach-front properties, and the like. No interviews in the cafes by the way, but there are some of Koby in his apartment overlooking the whole of Maroubra Beach and them riding around on twenty thousand dollar jetskis.
The difference between the image being sold, and believed, by the Bra Boys and what actually happens is far more complex than the 'documentary' makers deal with. I am not saying there is no disadvantage and poverty in Maroubra, but that the relationship between class, geography, gentrification, change, and aspiration is never clear cut. And the 'documentary' chooses to ignore this in favour of a simple us vs them narrative - working-class/disadvantaged vs the rest of the world.
Importantly, to get across this narrative the 'documenatry' focuses on the the Abberton family, who do come from poverty and a disadvantaged background. But there is no sight of or discussion of the hundreds of other members who they claim to be part of the brotherhood, this would have diluted the effectiveness of the 'documentary's' pitch of a 'hard life' because I hazard a guess that some of them come from normal family homes and middle-class wealth.
This portrayal of Maroubra and the Bra boys as 'tough' is supported by key violent events highlighted in the film, such as how in December 2002 thirty off-duty police officers were injured in a fight with the Bra Boys. The film shows extensive footage of the brawl, which happened at Bra Boy Mark Matthew’s 21st birthday at Coogee-Randwick RSL. Throughout the film every time the police are ridiculed (without a right of reply) and a fight shown huge cheers go up from the crowd. And there are plenty of fights. It's obviously cool to be violent, it proves you belong, can get a tattoo, and be a 'Bra Boy'. There is no mention of the innumerable assaults and intimidation of people at Maroubra, for things like parking their car where the Bra Boys want to park (I have seen this first hand). Or like when some young Bra Boys supposedly beat on members of a University Christian Youth Group while they were having an end of year BBQ in the park.
Throughout the 'documentary' the Bra Boys constantly reiterate the point that they have to 'defend' their beach, particularly from other gangs. So they carry baseball bats about. I don't know about you, but I have lived in some rough fucking areas, but I never carried a fucking baseball bat around. Perhaps because I wasn't spoiling for a fight. Also, why do the Bra Boys think other groups of blokes arrive at their beach prepared to fight in the first place? So that 'they' can feel safe in light of intimidation by the Bra Boys from the outset. The Bra Boys don't think about how their attitude makes others feel unsafe.
Like I mentioned before, there is no footage of how the Bra Boys assault and intimidate other surfers at Maroubra, and even other beaches. These assault can be for no other reason than you looked at them or caught a wave they wanted. Tracks Magazine Editor comes up on the screen claiming it is just good old localism, and blokes with a history at a beach expressing pride in it. He even says that 'without localism' all order at surfing beaches would fall apart. He's wrong, and merely provides an excuse for the Bra Boy's violence in the surfing culture. Crew manage to share waves and cope with each other all the time without violence and intimidation. Some surfers respect each bloke in the water, and share waves. A hoot here and a smile there actually work to regulate the lineup, so does skill. But the editor finds it easier to support the Bra Boys version of localism and to ensure that violent localism is the the only way to go. And don't fucking tell me I'm being utopian about how lineups can work differently. I see alternative ways of regulating lineups happen every day on beaches around Australia. It' s just that they are not validated like violent localism. It's not that localism and pride in your beach is wrong, it's how it is expressed that is important.
The film also documents the Cronulla Riots, and the Bra Boys role in it. On December 12, 2005, the day after the Cronulla riot, there was a fight with a crew of Lebanese-Australian men. Bra Boy 'Froggy' took on a heap of thugs from the Western Suburbs. Beaten and bloody he looks at the camera and says 'its nothin'. The cinema crowd cheers. Classic alpha-masculinity theme where a bloke doesn't take a backward step. The Bra Boys make sure they tell us that the crew from the inland suburbs ran away when they turned up. No interviews with Lebanese-Australians are shown, funny that. The Bra Boys eventually met the Australian Islamic Friendship Association and the Lebanese-Australian dominated Commancheros bikie gang to explain that they had nothing to do with the riot, and made fun of the Cronulla local crew for ‘biting off more than they could chew’. The Bra Boys claim they brokered the peace, even though the violence had already subsided , the police had control of the situation, key community members from throughout Sydney had already met and spoken to their people to stop the violence, and so on. Nah, the Bra Boys 'saved' Maroubra. No mention is made of the fact that aa Bra Boy had said publicly that such a thing wouldn't happen at Maroubra because his boys wouldn't allow it'. Nor is it considered that the thugs from the western suburbs might have chosen Maroubra because of that quote, and to prove that westies can kick surfer ass. Also, no mention is made of the massive amounts of work that has been done in Cronulla and elsewhere to fight racism and help communities heal.
The Bra Boys reckon they have it all sorted of course. They repeatedly state the ethnic diversity of their brotherhood, to prove that they are not racist. But they make the mistaken assumption that racism is only White. As cultural Anthropologist Ghassan Hage writes:
the division of people as good and bad relies on a common racist conception of racism as always white … [however], everybody can be racist. White people of a European background do not have a monopoly on racist beliefs and attitudes; it is a feature of all cultures
Just because they have ethnic diversity in the brotherhood, it doesn't mean they can't be, and are not, racist at times. And it certainly doesn't mean that they don't chase people away from their beach for similar reasons to the Cronulla locals. The Cronulla Riots were not just about 'racism', and if the Bra Boys were really concerned about what happened they would have bothered to find this out.
That said, parts of the film does develop empathy with the Abbertons, and contradict some of the thuggish representations the film glorifies.
In their book ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ Angela Kamper and Charles Miranda document the murder case of Jai Abberton, a high-profile Bra Boy. He was acquitted from charges related to murdering Anthony Hines. Hines was another Bra Boy known to be a drug dealer, rapist and stand-over man. Professional surfer Koby Abberton, Jai’s brother, went on trial for accessory to murder. This part of the film is done well. And Sunny Abberton takes us into his private life. It's a devastating part of his family's history. Jai and Koby get off from the charges but the effects on their private life are significant. And I admired Jai's ability to resist rubbishing Hines on film, and his decorum in relation to the affair. The film does not look at Hines' life, and only focuses on the Abbertons. Jai comes out looking squeaky clean but questions are left unanswered about his relationship with Hines. In effect this part of the film make the audience empathise with the Abberton family, and by extension the Bra Boys. It's a shame the filmmakers didn't look at how other Bra Boys felt about the incidence, what happened, and how it affected their sense of brotherhood.
Also, throughout the film the repeated return to the importance of the Abberton's Grandma also provokes empathy the boys. An amazing lady who through hardwork and patience looks after a heap of kids as they grow up in Maroubra. Her funeral in the film is heavy.
Macca De Souza should be complimented on his ability to capture the family emotions and trauma. They're the best sections of the film.
However, that said, these two empathetic events heavily contradict the rest of the film and its bravado, macho posturing, and misinformation. These sections of the film help the audience think that these are just poor misunderstood boys. But I couldn't shake the feeling that the boys have put their 'Ma' in an unfortunate position. Her story, rather than being valued for her life in and of itself, works to try and gain empathy for the Bra Boys. When in actual fact I felt empathy for their Ma. The section comes across as saying 'We're not that bad really' instead of getting across the love for their Ma like it could have.
The blokes sitting behind me cheered when the film returned to the larrikanism, violence, surfing and bonding. The previous sections were not the surfing film they expected, I guess. But they were the most interesting.
The bonding and mateship in the film is central to its success. It makes those watching the film feel like they are inside the bonding process to, and they begin to identify with the Bra Boys. But to accept this position ignores the fact that this very same process of bonding actually builds walls between groups and the rest of the society, and belies the fact that those in the cinema will never belong to the Bra Boys no matter how well the film allows them to 'join in'. The bonding process the 'documentary' shows actually works to put everyone else 'outside belonging' unless the Bra Boys say you're OK. It works to give them authority at the expense of others.
The film clearly demonstrates the processes and myths that allow blokes to bond into close-knit groups, and can see them withdraw from the rest of society. This ‘brotherhood’ fight together, surf together, support each other, and the older blokes offer guidance to the boys.Throughout the film Bra Boys repeatedly refer to particularly particular versions of respect, brotherhood, honour and loyalty. The Bra Boys film actually illustrates how easy it is to be swept in quite an ugly version of surfing, mateship and masculinity. Even though the members of the Bra Boys would not call it ugly, because they have grown up in and of course have come to believe the version of the values they promote.
Some key rules and values that demonstrate the values they became familiar with are that a young bloke must show ‘courage’ by catching dangerous and large waves. The Bra Boys protege in the film illustrates this when he says Koby told him that if he doesn't charge he can walk home. A young bloke must also demonstrate their loyalty by backing their mates up in a fight. Even though the fights the Bra Boys get involved in are by and large unneccessary. When a newcomer wants to join in it has to be on the group’s terms. If he steps out-of-line by not taking off on a dangerous wave or not getting involved in a fight he’s be mocked, abused or even beaten up. The cruelty acts as a test, and the film has an interview of a boy's mum who approves of this behaviour because the Bra Boys are 'looking after' her son. Well, mum, it could be done differently, like, through supporting him without conditions. It’s a process of bastardization and bullying that the younger blokes grow to accept, and in turn perpetuate because ‘that’s how you learned and it did you no harm’ [well, supposedly].
This means that they regularly get into strife with others because they have a learned habit of resorting to, and justifying, violence as a way to put things ‘right’ when they feel that they aren’t. They learn that they are expected to stick up for each other to chase off outsiders – people their mates claim need to be taught a lesson. And everyone but their group are ‘outsiders’. As one Bra Boys states: We’re just a group of mates who love surfing and we protect our beach … we don’t want outsiders coming in’. The young blokes learn to hate who their mates hate, and when they have bonded they seem to act first and think later.
What the film reveals in the Bra Boys is a passive acceptance of particular interpretations of honour, respect and loyalty/mateship. In many cases it was the only interpretation they were offered, hence their uncritical acceptance. They then go on to espouse these traits, and romanticise them in film, without reflecting on how their version of them causes their problems in the first place. The attitudes the film continues to promote disguise, perpetuate and reproduce an ‘us and them’ mentality that limits opportunities for younger member of the group, and validates a violent form of mateship.
While the Bra Boys film suggests that their version is the only way to survive for them; there are better ways to do loyalty, respect and honour that could work also.
Loyalty can actually mean looking after your brother so they don’t get into stupid fights in the first place, it’s not about joining in regardless of whether your brother is in the right or not. Honour can mean paying attention the difference of others and their needs at the beach, not just your own. Respect can mean more than tolerance of others as long as they are subservient to your way of doing things.
At the end of the film they even say that 'everyone is welcome at the beach, as long as they respect our history and culture'. But just because they were fortunate enough to grow up next to the beach does that give them rights to respect of 'their' history over others? What about the kids who work all week, get up at 4am on a Sunday to catch trains and buses to go for a surf at Maroubra? Oh, their background is not as important as the Bra Boys history and culture being screamed from the rooftops.
According to the Bra Boys if you give respect you’ll get it. But that’s not really true. The respect is one way because the Bra Boys way is considered the authentic or authoritative way to do things. Other cultural and ethnic ways of doing things can be done, but they will be tolerated rather than be on equal footing with the local version. This tolerance relied on the outsider being subservient to local rules and privilege. In his work Toleration (1997), Preston King points out
There is something intolerable about the concept of ‘tolerance’. For if one concedes or promotes a power to tolerate, one equally concedes a power not to tolerate (p. 6).
The Bra Boy's version of respect sets them up as legislators and guardians of their own laws, and perpetuates a very narrow set of rules about how things can be done. Little or no effort is made to understand how others might see and feel things differently, or have different needs. They have no rights unless the Bra Boys give them some. Those who are not respected are those who begin to develop a will of their own and move beyond the turf that is allotted to them, anyone not a Bra Boy.
Quite simply the Bra Boys sell a story that people who don't surf want to hear. The 'documentary' is anything but a documentary. It works more as a propaganda and a marketing tool more than anything else. In all honesty, I left the film seething . My girlfriend didn't hear me speak the whole way home. These blokes portray and exploit surfing in an ugly way. They promote violence, being a thug, intimidation, double standards, misinformation, disrespect, and the like.
The film works to sell a Bra Boys’ story to the world. Under the guidance of the advertising gurus John and Jack Singleton the film begins a myth-making exercise that cashes in on the anti-hero ethos of surfing, albeit upping the ante and bringing it into the 21st century - ‘more shocking, tougher, meaner and badder’. Many surfers have moved beyond the ‘counter-culture’ imaginary, which is now packaged and sold to them. Other surfers know its all hype. Nevertheless, the film works to sell the Bra Boys’ line of clothing [MBK Soldiers] and makes their surfing and beer sponsors happy. And turns their tattoos into a piece of branding. IThe Bra Boys then become a signifier for all that’s ‘tough’ about urban surfing, or the stereotype that non-surfers like to read about.
The media – and the audience at the State Theatre – swallow it hook, line and sinker.
At the end of the film a raffle was held to raise money for a bus to bring disadvantaged kids from the Western Suburbs to the beach. The very same crew the Bra Boys have intimidated, bullied and ridiculed over the years. It's a nice gesture I guess. But I can tell you, I wouldn't want my kids looking up to these blokes as 'role models' or 'mentors'. Their take on life isn't crash hot, even though they want us to think otherwise. Maybe they should take the money they raised for the bus and travel out to the Western Suburbs and live with the kids there for awhile. I think they have more to learn than the kids they want to 'help'. It would actually do the Bra Boys good, and show them how Maroubra ain't that bad after all.
If people think there is no alternative to 'brotherhoods' like the Bra Boys, you're wrong. There are surfing ‘brotherhoods’ who do things differently, and ask ‘what can I do for surfing rather than what can surfing do for me?’ These are groups of surfers who have taken time to think about engaging with the world (not pulling away from it), re-evaluated what being a man is, and now use their bonding/solidarity to fight dodgy developments, help people in third world countries, start up surf schools for disadvantaged youth without blaring it all over the media, and the like. Now they’re surfers worth getting stoked about. If you want to know the alternative ‘brotherhoods’ of surfing you could do worse than check out Surf Aid International and the Surfrider Foundation.
Last edited by Clif on Thu Mar 08, 2007 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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One Mile Point
- Snowy McAllister
- Posts: 5643
- Joined: Tue Jul 06, 2004 5:44 pm
Clif wrote:OK
I went. Here is a review. it's long but the film p!ssed me off. Oh, and ol' NickNack makes an appearance
Clif
The film uncritically documents the history of Maroubra Beach and the Bra Boys. Some grew up in the housing commission estates that border the south end of Maroubra Beach. Overall, Maroubra Beach is painted as a home away from home. As producer Sunny Abberton says: ‘ Maroubra Beach has been Mum and Dad to so many kids” And the ‘brotherhood’ a family many of the members never had. The film sets up a classic working-class narrative of a hard luck story where young men struggle against the odds to make it good.
Since I study film stuff I decided to go to the premiere, even though I had reservations about what and who I was supporting, as you will see.
I arrived with my girlfriend and some friends and we were confronted by crowd barriers, a plethora of security guards, people with headphones running around dressed in black (as all good film people should), and innumerable crew with those funny swinging passes around their necks - you see these passes at music festivals and the like allowing 'access all areas'. No, we didn't get a swinging pass, but we would have looked cool if we did.
We went for quick drink elsewhere while everyone waited for the Bra Boys to arrive. When we returned there was quite a crowd inside the theatre. But we weren't in yet. First we had to go through two sets of bag and security checks. It was a nice touch, and gave the impression we were 'dangerous' or in the presence of a 'dangerous gang' where retaliatory attacks are possible. Mind you, the glamorous state theatre is hardly downtown LA. Also, looking around I didn't see anyone who even remotely looked dangerous.
There were lots of girls dressed up in short skirts and very high heels, and blokes in open neck shirts and suits who looked like reject players from 'The Footy Show'. I was shocked to find that faux mohawks are still in. Plenty of 'trendy' Eastern Suburbs / Bondi were present - it's important to be scene [Woops, I mean 'seen'] I have to say, in my dunlop volleys, jeans and t-shirt I felt very under-dressed: was this a 'surf movie launch' or what? Plenty of people milled around, hanging over the ornate balconies and drinking. Star Koby Abberton had a tuxedo on, open at the neck to make sure everyone saw his tatto: 'my brothers keeper' around his neck. Branding is important. I couldn't see his Bondi Blonde tattoo.
We managed to grab a beer and head inside the theatre to our seats. Which were not crash hot. Those old theatres have stupid carvings, lights and cleverly 'constructed walls that mean you go 'wow this is so ritzy', while you cannot see properly from anywhere but directly in front of the screen. I kept getting distracted by the naked woman in a toga carved into the wall blocking part of my view. By the end of the night I thought she was hot. I blame it on the beers. All in all the premiere should have been held in it a big multi-plex,. Better picture and sound,huge **** screen, popcorn, choctops. But that wouldn't have given the right impression: 'we've made it in this town, look where our film is'.
After a few thankyous from the producers and distributers next to the 'Bondi Blonde' beer signs we were nearly off and running. Acknowledgment though was respectfully made to the Aboriginal owners of the land by an Aboriginal film maker from La Perouse: a suburb next to Maroubra. Then some more thankyous - get going already. I guess I had the hot toga woman to ogle anyway.
The lights dim. The film starts by providing a narration about Maroubra's history by Russell Crowe. His deep masculine gravely voice giving weight to the seriousness and significance of the history (lower your tone as you read that sentence).
There is a focus on Aboriginal history in the area, and I'm left wondering if this is a genuine attempt to acknowledge Aboriginal history, or the Bra Boys are making the mistaken assumption of comparing themselves to the Aboriginal's history in the area. And assuming they too know what colonisation and exploitation feel like. Unlike them, I do not believe the Bra Boys' history does not tie into the Aboriginal history in some simple way, even though the 'documentaryw the Bra Boys cultural history ties into' seems to try to claim this. I don't think this because the Bra Boys cultural history also ties into Australian culture's history of colonisation, displacement and assimilation of the Aboriginal people. Funny, old Russell doesn't mention that.
As the film progresses it documents the rise of the Bra Boys 'brotherhood' from the early days of 'Ma's hell Team' (Ma is the Abberton's Grandma). Several of the Bra Boys come from broken families, and poverty. A particular working-class and decrepit urban imaginary of Maroubra is set up. The film regularly refers to Long Bay Jail, police helicopters, cuts from street brawls, and the housing commission estate. Interviews with key members are done on a hill overlooking the housing commission estate, and in front of broken windows and graffiti. This semiotic game adds to the Bra Boys credibility of being ‘tough’ and from the wrong side of the tracks so to speak.
Noticably absent from the movie’s images are the last decade’s gentrification of Maroubra - the cafes, boardwalk, expensive apartments, and so on. The innumerable multi-million dollar houses are never shown. To evidence such gentrification and wealth would undermine the thematic of ‘Maroubra as ghetto’. In actual fact, for many years the area came under the jurisdiction and care of long-serving NSW premier Bob Carr. investment in Maroubra was strong, including an effective public transport system, and substantial recreation facilities. Combined with the beach the suburb of Maroubra wasn’t that bad a place to grow up in, far better than, say, the inland suburbs of Macquarie Fields, Waterloo, Blacktown or Redfern . These suburbs experience far higher crime rates, unemployment, and youth disadvantage. Also absent is the aspirational nature of many of the Bra Boys who are regularly seen sipping coffees in the many cafes, owning beach-front properties, and the like. No interviews in the cafes by the way, but there are some of Koby in his apartment overlooking the whole of Maroubra Beach and them riding around on twenty thousand dollar jetskis.
The difference between the image being sold, and believed, by the Bra Boys and what actually happens is far more complex than the 'documentary' makers want to deal with. I am not saying there is no disadvantage and poverty in Maroubra, but that the relationship between class, geography, gentrification, change, and aspiration is never clear cut. And the 'documentary' chooses to ignore this in favour of a simple us vs them narrative - working-class/disadvantaged vs the rest of the world.
Importantly, to get across this narrative the 'documenatry' focuses on the the Abberton family, who do come from poverty and a disadvantaged background. But there is no sight of or discussion of the hundreds of other members who they claim to be part of the brotherhood, this would have diluted the effectiveness of the 'documentary's' pitch of a 'hard life' because I hazard a guess that some of them come from normal family homes and middle-class wealth.
This portrayal of Maroubra and the Bra boys as 'tough' is supported by key violent events highlighted in the film, such as how in December 2002 thirty off-duty police officers were injured in a fight with the Bra Boys. The film shows extensive footage of the brawl, which happened at Bra Boy Mark Matthew’s 21st birthday at Coogee-Randwick RSL. Throughout the film every time the police are ridiculed (without a right of reply) and a fight shown huge cheers go up from the crowd. And there are plenty of fights. It's obviously cool to be violent, it proves you belong, can get a tattoo, and be a 'Bra Boy'. There is no mention of the innumerable assaults and intimidation of people at Maroubra, for things like parking their car where the Bra Boys want to park (I have seen this first hand). Or like when some young Bra Boys supposedly beat on members of a University Christian Youth Group while they were having an end of year BBQ in the park.
Throughout the 'documentary' the Bra Boys constantly reiterate the point that they have to 'defend' their beach, particularly from other gangs. So they carry baseball bats about. I don't know about you, but I have lived in some rough **** areas, but I never carried a **** baseball bat around. Perhaps because I wasn't spoiling for a fight. Also, why do the Bra Boys think other groups of blokes arrive at their beach prepared to fight in the first place? So that 'they' can feel safe in light of intimidation by the Bra Boys from the outset. The Bra Boys don't think about how their attitude makes others feel unsafe. And how their glorification of violence means that when others want to fight, well, they go to the Bra of course - the boys there have the same cave man attitude as us.
Like I mentioned before, there is no footage of how the Bra Boys assault and intimidate other surfers at Maroubra, and even other beaches. These assault can be for no other reason than you looked at them or caught a wave they wanted. Tracks Magazine Editor Sean Doherty comes up on the screen claiming it is just good old localism, and blokes with a history at a beach expressing pride in it. He even says that 'without localism' all order at surfing beaches would fall apart. Doherty is wrong, and merely provides an excuse for the Bra Boy's violence in the surfing culture. Crew manage to share waves and cope with each other all the time without violence and intimidation. Some surfers respect each bloke in the water, and share waves. A hoot here and a smile there actually work to regulate the lineup, so does skill. But Doherty finds it easier to support the Bra Boys version of localism and to ensure that violent localism is the the only way to go. And don't **** tell me I'm being utopian about how lineups can work differently. I see alternative ways of regulating lineups happen every day on beaches around Australia. It' s just that they are not validated like violent localism. It's not that localism and pride in your beach is wrong, it's how it is expressed that is important.
The film also documents the Cronulla Riots, and the Bra Boys role in it. On December 12, 2005, the day after the Cronulla riot, there was a fight with a crew of Lebanese-Australian men. Bra Boy 'Froggy' took on a heap of thugs from the Western Suburbs. Beaten and bloody he looks at the camera and says 'its nothin'. The cinema crowd cheers. Classic alpha-masculinity theme where a bloke doesn't take a backward step. The Bra Boys make sure they tell us that the crew from the inland suburbs ran away when they turned up. No interviews with Lebanese-Australians are shown, funny that. The Bra Boys eventually met the Australian Islamic Friendship Association and the Lebanese-Australian dominated Commancheros bikie gang to explain that they had nothing to do with the riot, and made fun of the Cronulla local crew for ‘biting off more than they could chew’. The Bra Boys claim they brokered the peace, even though the violence had already subsided , the police had control of the situation, key community members from throughout Sydney had already met and spoken to their people to stop the violence, and so on. Nah, the Bra Boys 'saved' Maroubra. No mention is made of the fact that aa Bra Boy had said publicly that such a thing wouldn't happen at Maroubra because his boys wouldn't allow it'. Nor is it considered that the thugs from the western suburbs might have chosen Maroubra because of that quote, and to prove that westies can kick surfer ****. Also, no mention is made of the massive amounts of work that has been done in Cronulla and elsewhere to fight racism and help communities heal.
The Bra Boys reckon they have it all sorted of course. They repeatedly state the ethnic diversity of their brotherhood, to prove that they are not racist. But they make the mistaken assumption that racism is only White. As cultural Anthropologist Ghassan Hage writes:
the division of people as good and bad relies on a common racist conception of racism as always white … [however], everybody can be racist. White people of a European background do not have a monopoly on racist beliefs and attitudes; it is a feature of all cultures
Just because they have ethnic diversity in the brotherhood, it doesn't mean they can't be, and are not, racist at times. And it certainly doesn't mean that they don't chase people away from their beach for similar reasons to the Cronulla locals. The Cronulla Riots were not just about 'racism', and if the Bra Boys were really concerned about what happened they would have bothered to find this out.
That said, parts of the film does develop empathy with the Abbertons, and contradict some of the thuggish representations the film glorifies.
In their book ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ Angela Kamper and Charles Miranda document the murder case of Jai Abberton, a high-profile Bra Boy. He was acquitted from charges related to murdering Anthony Hines. Hines was another Bra Boy known to be a drug dealer, rapist and stand-over man. Professional surfer Koby Abberton, Jai’s brother, went on trial for accessory to murder. This part of the film is done well. And Sunny Abberton takes us into his private life. It's a devastating part of his family's history. Jai and Koby get off from the charges but the effects on their private life are significant. And I admired Jai's ability to resist rubbishing Hines on film, and his decorum in relation to the affair. The film does not look at Hines' life, and only focuses on the Abbertons. Jai comes out looking squeaky clean but questions are left unanswered about his relationship with Hines. In effect this part of the film make the audience empathise with the Abberton family, and by extension the Bra Boys. It's a shame the filmmakers didn't look at how other Bra Boys felt about the incidence, what happened, and how it affected their sense of brotherhood.
Also, throughout the film the repeated return to the importance of the Abberton's Grandma also provokes empathy the boys. An amazing lady who through hardwork and patience looks after a heap of kids as they grow up in Maroubra. Her funeral in the film is heavy.
Macca De Souza should be complimented on his ability to capture the family emotions and trauma. They're the best sections of the film.
However, that said, these two empathetic events heavily contradict the rest of the film and its bravado, macho posturing, and misinformation. These sections of the film help the audience think that these are just poor misunderstood boys. But I couldn't shake the feeling that the boys have put their 'Ma' in an unfortunate position. Her story, rather than being valued for her life in and of itself, works to try and gain empathy for the Bra Boys. When in actual fact I felt empathy for their Ma. The section comes across as saying: 'We're not that bad really' it seems to cry, instead of getting across the love for their Ma like it could have.
The blokes sitting behind me cheered when the film reutrned to the larrikanism, violence, surfing and bonding. The previous sections were not the surfing film they expected, I guess. But they were the most interesting.
The bonding and mateship in the film is central to its success. It makes those watching the film feel like they are inside the bonding process to, and they begin to identify with the Bra Boys. But to accept this position ignores the fact that this very same process of bonding actually builds walls between groups and the rest of the society, and belies the fact that those in the cinema will never belong to the Bra Boys no matter how well the film allows them to 'join in'. The bonding process the 'documentary' shows actually works to put everyone else 'outside belonging' unless the Bra Boys say you're OK. It works to give them authority at the expense of others.
The film clearly demonstrates the processes and myths that allow blokes to bond into close-knit groups, and can see them withdraw from the rest of society. This ‘brotherhood’ fight together, surf together, support each other, and the older blokes offer guidance to the boys.Throughout the film Bra Boys repeatedly refer to particularly particular versions of respect, brotherhood, honour and loyalty. The Bra Boys film actually illustrates how easy it is to be swept in quite an ugly version of surfing, mateship and masculinity. Even though the members of the Bra Boys would not call it ugly, because they have grown up in and of course have come to believe the version of the values they promote.
Some key rules and values that demonstrate the values they became familiar with are that a young bloke must show ‘courage’ by catching dangerous and large waves. The Bra Boys protoge in the film illustrates this when he says Koby told him that if he doesn't charge he can walk home. A young bloke must also demonstrate their loyalty by backing their mates up in a fight. Even though the fights the Bra Boys get involved in are by and large unneccessary. When a newcomer wants to join in it has to be on the group’s terms. If he steps out-of-line by not taking off on a dangerous wave or not getting involved in a fight he’s be mocked, abused or even beaten up. The cruelty acts as a test, and the film has an interview of a boy's mum who approves of this behaviour because the Bra Boys are 'looking after' her son. Well, mum, it could be done differently, like, through supporting him without conditions. It’s a process of bastardization and bullying that the younger blokes grow to accept, and in turn perpetuate because ‘that’s how you learned and it did you no harm’ [well, supposedly].
This means that they regularly get into strife with others because they have a learned habit of resorting to, and justifying, violence as a way to put things ‘right’ when they feel that they aren’t. They learn that they are expected to stick up for each other to chase off outsiders – people their mates claim need to be taught a lesson. And everyone but their group are ‘outsiders’. As one Bra Boys states: We’re just a group of mates who love surfing and we protect our beach … we don’t want outsiders coming in’. The young blokes learn to hate who their mates hate, and when they have bonded they seem to act first and think later.
What the film reveals in the Bra Boys is a passive acceptance of particular interpretations of honour, respect and loyalty/mateship. In many cases it was the only interpretation they were offered, hence their uncritical acceptance. They then go on to espouse these traits, and romanticise them in film, without reflecting on how their version of them causes their problems in the first place. The attitudes the film continues to promote disguise, perpetuate and reproduce an ‘us and them’ mentality that limits opportunities for younger member of the group, and validates a violent form of mateship.
While the Bra Boys film suggests that their version is the only way to survive for them; there are better ways to do loyalty, respect and honour that could work also.
Loyalty can actually mean looking after your brother so they don’t get into stupid fights in the first place, it’s not about joining in regardless of whether your brother is in the right or not. Honour can mean paying attention the difference of others and their needs at the beach, not just your own. Respect can mean more than tolerance of others as long as they are subservient to your way of doing things.
At the end of the film they even say that 'everyone is welcome at the beach, as long as they respect our history and culture'. But just because they were fortunate enough to grow up next to the beach does that give them rights to respect of 'their' history over others? What about the kids who work all week, get up at 4am on a Sunday to catch trains and buses to go for a surf at Maroubra? Oh, their background is not as important as the Bra Boys history and culture being screamed from the rooftops.
According to the Bra Boys if you give respect you’ll get it. But that’s not really true. The respect is one way because the Bra Boys way is considered the authentic or authoritative way to do things. Other cultural and ethnic ways of doing things can be done, but they will be tolerated rather than be on equal footing with the local version. This tolerance relied on the outsider being subservient to local rules and privilege. In his work Toleration (1997), Preston King points out
There is something intolerable about the concept of ‘tolerance’. For if one concedes or promotes a power to tolerate, one equally concedes a power not to tolerate (p. 6).
The Bra Boy's version of respect sets them up as legislators and guardians of their own laws, and perpetuates a very narrow set of rules about how things can be done. Little or no effort is made to understand how others might see and feel things differently, or have different needs. They have no rights unless the Bra Boys give them some. Those who are not respected are those who begin to develop a will of their own and move beyond the turf that is allotted to them, anyone not a Bra Boy.
Quite simply the Bra Boys sell a story that people who don't surf want to hear. The 'documentary' is anything but a documentary. It works more as a propaganda and a marketing tool more than anything else. In all honesty, I left the film seething . My girlfriend didn't hear me speak the whole way home. These blokes portray and exploit surfing in an ugly way. They promote violence, being a thug, intimidation, double standards, misinformation disrespect, and the like.
The film works to sell a Bra Boys’ story to the world. Under the guidance of the advertising gurus John and Jack Singleton the film begins a myth-making exercise that cashes in on the anti-hero ethos of surfing, albeit upping the ante and bringing it into the 21st century - ‘more shocking, tougher, meaner and badder’. Many surfers have moved beyond the ‘counter-culture’ imaginary, which is now packaged and sold to them. Other surfers know its all hype. Nevertheless, the film works to sell the Bra Boys’ line of clothing [MBK Soldiers] and makes their surfing and beer sponsors happy. And turns their tattoos into a piece of branding. In effect what we have is a ‘documentary’ that extends the anti-hero/counter-culture ethos to include a bit of petty drug dealing/theft/standover/big wave surfing. The Bra Boys then become a signifier for all that’s ‘tough’ about urban surfing, or the stereotype that non-surfers like to read about.
The media – and the audience at the State Theatre – swallow it hook, line and sinker.
At the end of the film a raffle was held to raise money for a bus to bring disadvantaged kids from the Western Suburbs to the beach. The very same crew the Bra Boys have intimidated, bullied and ridiculed over the years. It's a nice gesture I guess. But I can tell you, I wouldn't want my kids looking up to these blokes as 'role models' or 'mentors'. Their take on life is pretty **** skewed and ugly, even though they want us to think otherwise. Maybe they should take the money they raised for the bus and travel out to the Western Suburbs and live with the kids there for awhile. I think they have more to learn than the kids they want to 'help'. It would actually do the Bra Boys good, and show them how Maroubra ain't that bad after all.
If people think there is no alternative to 'brotherhoods' like the Bra Boys, you're wrong. There are surfing ‘brotherhoods’ who do things differently, and ask ‘what can I do for surfing rather than what can surfing do for me?’ These are groups of surfers who have taken time to think about engaging with the world (not pulling away from it), re-evaluated what being a man is, and now use their bonding/solidarity to fight dodgy developments, help people in third world countries, start up surf schools for disadvantaged youth without blaring it all over the media, and the like. Now they’re surfers worth getting stoked about. If you want to know the alternative ‘brotherhoods’ of surfing you could do worse than check out Surf Aid International and the Surfrider Foundation.
I'm gonna start a gang called the Man Boys.
Or should that be the Man Childs.
Or maybe the Man Boobs.
Either way, Manly could sure do with some heroics like those shown by the boys from the Bra'.
They're my heroes.
All aboard the 2095 tattoo train, stopping all stations.
And I might just get me one of those southern cross tattoos. They're original.
Or should that be the Man Childs.
Or maybe the Man Boobs.
Either way, Manly could sure do with some heroics like those shown by the boys from the Bra'.
They're my heroes.
All aboard the 2095 tattoo train, stopping all stations.
And I might just get me one of those southern cross tattoos. They're original.
The Monster wave footage of Ours, Cyclopes (especially), Jaws and Chopes were friggin' sick man. Don't worry about what other people think, check it out for yourself.
Personally I've seen enough 'feel good, warm and fuzzy" surfing vids that are more like music videos. This had grit and is far from perfect, but you cannot deny that the whole police conflict + murder trial + big wave charging pro surfer = a 'story' that is more than enough to base a film on.
Personally I've seen enough 'feel good, warm and fuzzy" surfing vids that are more like music videos. This had grit and is far from perfect, but you cannot deny that the whole police conflict + murder trial + big wave charging pro surfer = a 'story' that is more than enough to base a film on.
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lovinglife
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