Murder Ensnares Surfer Gang Documentary

Copyright © 2008 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

And apologies to our listeners for the technical difficulty there. Onto our next story.

On the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, the beach community of Maroubra Bay has long been a place of beauty and brutality. A place where young people found refuge in the rough surf and with the rough gang of surfers called the Bra Boys, bra short from Maroubra.

The gang is profiled in a new film narrated by Russell Crowe. The documentary broke Australian box office records, and it just opened in some U.S. cities. It centers on the four Abberton brothers - Sunny, Koby, Jai, and Dakota. Sunny Abberton wrote and directed the film. He started making the film because he wanted to show that there was more to the Bra Boys than their thuggish reputation.

But six months into the project, the story changed. His brother Jai was charged with murder and his brother Koby charged as an accessory. In the end Jai was acquitted, and the charges against Koby were dropped. Sunny Abberton stopped by our studios recently. He said, in the film, he wanted to capture what life is like for a young man in Maroubra.

Mr. SUNNY ABBERTON (Director, "Bra Boys"): Most of our friends that we grew up, you know, our parents were heroine addicts or alcoholics or they rot in the local prison up from hill. So, I mean, for us to all grow up as those kids and the reason we formed was just our sole way of survival. You know, I wanted to try and show that struggle in the documentary. So that's what we first set out to do.

But six months into the filming of it, Jai was charged with the shooting. And then six months later, Koby is an accessory. I mean, I think, we really had to remain true to the story that we're trying to tell. And, you know, that is our life. That is, your life in these types of communities, in a project anywhere where sometimes you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

NORRIS: Is it hard for you to be objective in these because you're talking about the closest people in your life?

Mr. ABBERTON: Yeah. It was really hard. So what I tried to do was just stick to the facts. You know, the facts are that it has been a long-running battle between the local surf community and the local authorities. And really, you know, I could have pointed the finger at the place and said, I've done this, I've done that, but we really didn't. We really just looked to the facts of what was happening.

NORRIS: You know, in watching the film, though, including, you know, a lot of footage of these brawls on the beach including one in particular that seems to go on almost for two minutes. You know, when you watch that, it seems like you're not just talking about a stereotype or a stigma. But this reputation, this rough reputation, is well deserved.

Mr. ABBERTON: Yeah. Well, we're not trying to paint ourselves as angels in the documentary as we clearly show but, you know, we're not condoning violence, we're not trying to glorify it. What we're trying to say, though, in the movie and one of those main reasons why we did make it is to show that even you do come from one of those backgrounds, that if you can concentrate your anger and your frustration and put it into an outlet like surfing, you can succeed and get through it.

NORRIS: What is different about an Australian surfer? A lot of people who are listening to this might think they know a thing or two about surfing here in the states. But what's different about surfers in Australia?

Mr. ABBERTON: It's so much more entrenched with our culture in Australia. For instance, our grandfather taught us to surf, so, it's something like when you're from a really young age. And surfers grow up - we've got a lot more bays and headland, so surfers grow up more in their tribe, so to speak. They don't travel from beach to beach as much as say an American surfer would do. You know, one day, they might surf in San Diego, they might zip up to Newport Beach, and in the next day, you know, up to Ventura, whereas Australian surfers seem to stay close to their local area where they grew up.

NORRIS: That's Sunny Abberton. He's the director of the documentary "Bra Boys." The film is now out in some U.S. cities.

You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.

Copyright © 2008 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.