Award-Winning Short Film “Yeah The Boys” Releasing October 15
A Riveting Exploration of Australian Masculine Identity and Drinking Culture
with music by The Avalanches
Yeah The Boys, directed by Stefan Hunt, choreographed by Vanessa Marian and featuring the music of The Avalanches, will be released on October 15 on multiple platforms including Vimeo, YouTube and Instagram following a successful Australian and international festival run.
This highly original film had its world premiere earlier this year at the Academy-Award qualifying Flickerfest, Australia’s premier international short film festival, where is won Best Australian Short. It was also nominated for Best Cinematography at the St Kilda Film Festival, where it also won the Innovation Award, and most recently was nominated for Best Special Visual Project, at the 2024 UK Music Video Awards.
Internationally, Yeah The Boys premiered at the Palm Springs Short Fest were it was nominated for Best International Short, and screened today at the Down Under Film Festival (Germany), on September 6th, then at the Calgary International Film Festival (Canada) on September 19th and then it will screen at Show Me Shorts Film Festival (New Zealand) on October 11th.
Created by the husband-and-wife director-choreographer duo Stefan Hunt and Vanessa Marian, the short film is an highly original exploration of Aussie larrikinism and masculinity, with a unique blend of choreography and screen storytelling.
Yeah The Boys follows six young Aussie men as they sink beers at a backyard sesh well into the night. The film delves into the celebration of Aussie larrikinism, showcasing the fun of such gatherings—until it’s not. Emoting solely through movement – lewd gestures, chokeholds, crowd surfs, and chugging shoeys – these men communicate everything without uttering a single word. Equal parts cheeky, brutal, and tender, this choreographic short film, scored by The Avalanches, offers an insightful observation of Australian masculine identity and the nation’s relationship with drinking culture.
Director Stefan Hunt said: “This is a collaboration between myself and choreographer Vanessa Marian, who initially created this work as a dancer’s exploration of Australian masculinity, viewed through a feminist lens. Conceptually, the overall idea was to explore how men emote and communicate through everything but language.
We played with the tension between hyper-masculinity and dance, a combination I’d never expect to see at a typical Aussie piss-up. Our goal was to show the full, complex layers of masculine identity in a way that is equal parts larrikin, brutal, and tender,” said Stefan Hunt.
Choreographer Vanessa Marian said: “As an Indian immigrant woman, I wanted to see if I could tell a story that went so far beyond the boundaries of my own lived experience. I quickly found I was out of my depth, so I brought on my husband not only to direct the film but also to act as our cultural advisor. He quickly pointed out crucial nuances of Aussie bloke culture, like the difference between rugby league and rugby union shorts. Invaluable stuff really.
Stefan and Vanessa are currently developing a satirical TV show about the Aussie dance industry inspired by Vanessa’s personal experiences. This project is being developed through an incubator with Nicky Weinstock’s Invention Studios in LA. They are also working on a feature script that interrogates Australia’s laid-back political culture through the adventures of a riotous surf-punk band.
