Jackson, Wyoming – December 21, 2007 – The Alpinist Film Festival announced today that it will present Bra Boys on January 18, 2008, at the Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village, Wyoming. The film–the shocking story of the Australian street gang redeemed by surf–will conclude Surf Night, the second night of the 2008 AFF.
Australia’s Bra Boys–variously referred to as a surf tribe or a gang–formed in the early 1990s as a response to increasing levels of violence in their community. Brothers Koby and Sunny Abberton, two of the group’s founding members, used their allegiance to their fellow surfers to shield them from the ravages of drug addiction and domestic conflict. Along the way, they began to surf professionally, and Koby became one of the most fearless big-wave riders in the world. Then, disaster struck.
In 2003, their brother Jai shot and killed another gang member. The descent into the legal morass that followed engulfed the family even more when Koby was jailed for refusing to cooperate with police. Bra Boys–narrated by Russell Crowe–captures the tragedy and ultimate triumph of this group of surfers for whom the ocean became a place of salvation.
AFF producers are stressing that parental discretion is strongly advised for the audience members of Surf Night. Violence and profanity are both prevalent in Bra Boys, which is not rated.
“We set out to make…an unflinching portrayal of the truth of our lives,” Sunny said. “There’s been a lot of misconceptions about us and the group. And we just really want to show the truth. We didn’t set out for the audience to either like us or hate us…. We just wanted to try and show the most truthful, realistic portrayal of our lives and the rollercoaster ride that it’s been.”
“Bra Boys is a riveting story,” said Alpinist Film Festival film coordinator Conor Miller. “Combined with explosive surf footage, it’s one of the best surf films I’ve seen.
“We can almost guarantee that Bra Boys will be one of the most talked-about films to emerge from the 2008 AFF,” said Festival director Christian Beckwith.
The North American distributor of the film is preparing for nationwide release in March 2008. Bra Boys was the winner of Best Documentary and Best Wipe Out at the Surfer Poll Awards in Los Angeles, CA, earlier this year.
The 2008 Alpinist Film Festival will feature its signature Snow, Surf and Stone nights January 17-19 at Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village, Wyoming. A fourth evening, The People’s Choice Ceremonies, will present the People’s Choice award-winning films from the previous three evenings at the Center for the Arts in downtown Jackson. As an official entry into the AFF, Bra Boys will be in contention for the People’s Choice Awards, the winners of which will be shown January 20 at the People’s Choice Ceremonies in Jackson Hole. Winners of the individual evenings receive a gift certificate from Patagonia worth $750. The Grand Prize winner receives an additional gift certificate worth $1,500.
Tickets for The 2008 Alpinist Film Festival are $18 for the Snow, Surf and Stone nights and $20 for the People’s Choice Ceremonies. Tickets and additional information can be found online at www.alpinist.com/film_festival. To date, every event in The Alpinist Film Festival’s three-year history has sold out.
About The Alpinist Film Festival
The Alpinist Film Festival celebrates the adventure lifestyle across disciplines and generations with three nights of film in skiing, surfing and climbing. The Festival’s mission is to advance the art of cinematographic storytelling as it underscores the unity among the adventure lifestyle communities. A portion of every year’s proceeds are donated to charities that help preserve the places of our inspiration. Because one of these places is our planet, beginning in 2008, the Festival will purchase carbon offsets to counteract its carbon footprint.
About Alpinist Magazine
Hailed by Italian climbing legend Reinhold Messner as “The best climbing magazine in the world today,” Alpinist Magazine is an archival-quality, quarterly publication dedicated to world alpinism and adventure climbing. The pages of Alpinist capture the art of ascent in its most powerful manifestations, presenting an articulation of climbing and its lifestyle that matches the intensity of the pursuit itself. Alpinist has been awarded three Maggie Awards, for Best Quarterly/Consumer Division, Best Overall Design, and Best Electronic Newsletter, and was featured in a seven-page article in Outside Magazine (“The Purists”) in March 2005. The magazine’s editorial and publishing offices are based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and online at www.alpinist.com.