Airdate: Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water

SBS is screening Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water on Sunday night, following its Deep Water documentary.

Russell Crowe narrates the doco about the Abberton brothers, Sunny, Koby, Jai and Dakota (not to be confused with the River Boys?).

This was written and directed by members of the group and first released in 2007.

Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water is the gripping documentary about the cultural evolution of the inner-Sydney beachside suburb of Maroubra and the social struggle of its youth: the tattooed and maligned surf community known as the Bra Boys.

Russell Crowe narrates their story: from their success in professional big wave surfing, to their international reputation for hard partying and rough justice, and their running battle with the authorities to their absolute reliance on one another to fit into a society in which they’re displaced.

Central to this story is the true-life struggle of the Abberton brothers, Sunny, Koby, Jai and Dakota – one charged with murdering a Sydney standover man, another pursuing a professional surf career but charged as an accessory in his brother’s legal fight, another trying to hold the family together and a young brother whose inheritance is his siblings’ notoriety.

Using archival footage shot by the Bra Boys blended with current surf vision and interviews to create a story that’s compassionate and confronting, this is one of contrast, involving against-the-odds success and predictable failures. Ultimately, it’s a story exploring the legacy of the Bra Boys.

Sunday, 16 October at 10.20pm on SBS.