Yeah The Boys is a short film directed by Stefan Hunt, choreographed by Vanessa Marian and featuring the music of The Avalanches that explores Australian masculinity and drinking culture through dance.

Now I know what you are thinking. What the fuck? A dance number exploring the boys having a beer? But watch it and I think you’ll be equal parts surprised as you are impressed at the originality it takes to create something exploring Australian culture without saying a single word. It’s a celebration of our country’s deeply engrained larrikinism and the lengths we go to uphold that, even when it’s time to call it and go home. Already picking up a swarth of awards, Yeah The Boys is cheeky, brutal, tender and well worth your time. We had a chat with the husband wife duo to further explain the inspirations and how the heck they got The Avalanches to score it below.

Jumping right in, what was the inspiration for this? 

Vanessa: I was just given studio space to develop anything I wanted with dancers and all the typical dance things felt too easy for me. My friend at the time was writing, no, no, wait she’s still my friend but at the time she was writing a paper on Australian masculinities viewed through the feminist lens. My friends are super cool to talk to. 

(All laugh)

I love that. 

V: I just thought that was such a sick idea for a dance development and she was like ‘yeah cool I’ll come along and collect data.’ So that was all it was meant to be. Then when we started I realised two things. Firstly, we had stumbled onto something particularly special and needed to live a life larger than the four walls. And then secondly, I was completely ill-equipped to speak to the Australian masculinity experience because I don’t know what the fuck they do when they’re alone. And then that’s when Stef came on board to be the cultural advisor.

Of the men (laughs).

Stefan: Which is both a compliment and an insult. 

V: Honestly there were so many nuances that he brought to it that I just would never know. Just things down to the clothing, like one of the dances rocked up in.. what was it again? 

S: He was wearing a Rugby Union jersey and Ness was ‘Oh that’s great he’s wearing that,’ and immediately I knew the boys featured in this wouldn’t watch Union, they’d be watching League. 

So true. That’s a big difference. 

V: I don’t know the difference. 

S: Yeah the whole white collar, blue collar thing. That’s culture right there. 

Definitely. Now this is a heavy question, but what do you think the impact of heavy drinking has on young adults, particularly men? Obviously that is explored in this. 

V: No, no one hundred percent which is why we should have a better answer straight away. 

It is so all-encompassing, and what we tried to portray in this film is all the things you can’t say so to put it back into words is almost the hard part right? One thing for me is that I get to be the camera in this, so sort of like the sober one, and you really do see how drinking maybe takes away certain inhibitions both good and bad. There’s the emotional dysregulation, social hierarchies and social constructs and you see a lot of that magnified in situations with drinking. Like who’s the alpha, who dares to have a girlfriend to take away from the boys, masking and how well you can keep the mask on, and the messiness that comes with it. But also how alcohol is a social lubricant in Australia. It’s not all bad you know, there’s larrikinism and tenderness. 

S: I think I can speak to that in that I think we all know the negative impacts, but then we also know all the fun that comes with drinking culture in Australia and also around the world. We wanted to create a film in a short amount of time that touched on three big things about the Aussie male drinking experience. Larrikinism- where it’s complete laughter and silliness where we don’t take ourselves too seriously which is really ingrained into our culture. Larrikinism is so celebrated in Australia but when is it not funny anymore? And it changes depending on who watches Yeah The Boys. When women watch the opening scene a lot of them hate it, but then when guys watch it they might identify with it more and find it funny up until when they are in a brawl. A lot of it comes down to the fact that a lot of guys haven’t seen this kind of behaviour sober before. They are usually shit faced.  

Exactly. 

S: So larrikinism, and then secondly brutality when everyone is fighting each other. And then thirdly tenderness. Like when they’re trying to help their friend to the couch, which is so simple but so soft and beautiful and usually the moments when guys tell their mates they love them. It proves that it exists, but why does it have to get to that level? 

V: Also the gaslighting. They just had this big brawl but then are immediately like ‘have a beer.’ Let’s just go back to not talking about it. We had the scuff, we’re over it. So it touches on a lot of themes and subjects. 

I can really see all of that in such a short film. Why use film to get this message across? 

V: That's all we know. I would love to be a politician but I’m not smart enough. 

S: Yeah I don’t want to deal with the other politicians. 

V: It’s the language we speak and a tiny contribution of what we think of the world. 

S: A lot of other projects Ness and I have done together have really clear messages to explore, whereas this one wasn't this morally clear film like this is what you should take away from it. Here is something that exists in Australia and how can we present it in a way that hasn’t been done before? The feeling you get from watching something original is the best feeling and we were really chasing that. On paper guys drinking beers to dance sounds horrible. 

V: It sounds like a musical or a Carlton Draught ad. Singing ‘I’m going to have a beer, yes I am.’ 

Carlton has done some pretty iconic ads but I get what you are saying. 

V: It’s a hard thing to sell to people. Get this ‘Australian masculinity and drinking told through dance!’ (Laughs). 

Well you’ve done it really well. Let the work do the talking kind of thing. How did you get The Avalanches involved? 

S: We choreographed the film, edited it all, had it all together and then Ness and I just asked each other ‘If we could get anyone to score the film who would it be?’ We really wanted an Aussie artist who understands Aussie culture and equally be able to put a lot of Aussie culture into the score such as sounds of kookaburras to ABC Rage theme songs, all those things. The first band that came to mind was The Avalanches for their range of sampling and ability to produce multi-layered tracks that were so intoxicating and catchy. 

V: At that point I was like great, The Avalanches are an amazing reference to give to a director but Stef was just like fuck it let’s just try and get them. We just put it out there to everyone and got it to a point where we had an email lead, we just had to make a really fucking good email. We laboured over it. 

S: Then they hit it back, it really resonated with them and they had never scored a film before. 

That is so cool. 

S: This film was made for an Aussie audience and them being an Aussie band it just made sense. 

I love that they were at the top of the dream list and you just got them. Good on ya. Also Vanessa - your title is movement director. I’ve never heard of that before, can you talk me through what that is? 

V: Choreography is when you explicitly make a couple of second or minute dance routines and teach it to people. I would say Yeah The Boys is completely choreographed in the sense that every single beer in hand and movement has been thought of. Movement direction is when you look at storytelling through movement and gestures. It is a lot more subtle. My job can range from making someone who has never been on set feel comfortable in front of a camera to eating yoghurt and ensuring that the label is facing the camera right. Or to something more as nuanced as Yeah The Boys. It comes from a dance background but it tends to be able to do non-dialogue based storytelling. 

Wow okay, I didn’t even know that it was a thing. 

V: Yeah I semi made it up at the time and now everyone is a movement director. Turns out it was a job this whole time. 

You seem like the dream team - what’s it like working with your partner? 

S: Yeah we’ve worked on a bunch of stuff together. They Saw The Sun First (watch here) from a few years ago and is on Monster Children was probably our most well-received.  

V: We work a lot together and have a really good time doing it. We’re the married couple that works together and has a good time doing it. 

S: Yeah we come from really different worlds but really similar value systems. 

Well there you go that’s the secret. I think some people hate it when I ask this question especially when I am interviewing about a current project but what is next? 

S: I thought you were going to ask what my political beliefs are. Religion. Let’s unpack it. 

(Laughs) No, not at all. Just that it’s only being released so I don’t want to take away from it. 

S: Well we wrapped this so long ago so we’re ready for the next one. 

V: The first one is Back Up. It’s a TV series that's currently in development with Invention Studios in LA. It's about the dreams, dramas and crumbling friendships of aspiring backup dancers. And it's obviously based on my experience within the dance and film industry over the last ten to twenty years. So yeah, it's a dry satire around that. The second is Baggy Undies. 

S: It’s a feature film about a punk band who accidentally become the spokesperson for the climate activists of Australia, but they're completely ill-equipped. 

V: They just do these antics that accidentally make them virtually famous, but then all of Australia turns to them as the new voice of a generation on topics of activism which these drongos are completely unqualified for. 

Sounds about right for Australia. 

V: Exactly. It’s about the cost of standing up for what you believe in the laid-back country. 

Wow, interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing these.