MEDIA REVIEW WACHUSSETTS PUNK THE BERIAUS’ BLOOD BROTHERS André Rober Beriau. Photo: Jacques Beriau The brothers Beriau. Photo: André Rober Beriau Jacques Beriau. Photo: André Rober Beriau Words Ben Shanks Kindlon WHEN WE’RE FIRST introduced to the Beriau brothers, André and Jacques, they’re at a skate park dressed in a sleeveless Misfits T-shirt and a leather-jacket-black-jean combo, respectively. Fast drums and guitar riffs from Boston street-punk band the Trouble play over a flurry of Super 8 clips showing the duo cruise around the park as their girlfriends watch. It’s a satirical skit of the 1990s dream, an era to which the Beriaus pay homage with their 2017 movie Blood Brothers. “The music in the film draws from our involvement in the Boston punk and hardcore scenes as kids,” André says. He and Jacques, now 31 and 33 years old, respectively, both found punk rock around the same time as they started skateboarding and snowboarding in the mid 1990s. By high school both brothers were getting flowed product by Eastern Boarder and other brands, and each went college to pursue degrees. Snowboarding has remained a constant for the pair, and at times a therapeutic outlet. In 2015, after two years spent working with the Peace Corps in war-torn Sierra Leone, Andr é was struggling with PTSD, and Jacques was going through a divorce. The brothers’ individual hardships took a toll on their relationship with each other, which had remained strong most of their lives. But, through creating Blood Brothers and recon-necting with their roots in snowboarding, skateboarding and music, the bonds of their brotherhood were rebuilt. “At one point, I didn’t know if I’d ever have a relationship with Jacques again,” Andr é writes in the epilogue of Blood Brothers . “Work-ing on this project helped us tighten the bonds that hadn’t been fully severed, but were damn near close to breaking.” With a mix of gear and cameras old and new the duo got to shoot-ing their movie. “Punk and hardcore taught us to use anything we can to the best of our ability,” Andr é says. “So, we used old, thrift-store-bought boards. It was partially because that’s what we had laying around, but also because it was our way of paying respect to the people we appreciated as kids.” The Beriaus took to Boston and surrounding areas, and to their home mountain of Wachussetts and other nearby resorts to film around their busy schedules as full-time middle school teachers. Although the riding isn’t quite on par with what you’ll find in the latest Absinthe film, the guys can hold their own, and Blood Broth-ers operates as an honest representation of riding the East Coast with your crew. It’s gritty, rambunctious and, above all else, raw. While the film is essentially a ’90s-era throwback, Andre’s deeply meaningful epilogue speaks volumes greater than your average indie production. It solidifies the idea that blood may relate you, but un-conditional love and support truly make you family. And when things aren’t going so good, turning to a shared passion and a fair bit of hu-mor can help you cope with whatever may be troubling you at the time. Snowboarding as a therapeutic outlet worked for them, and it can work for you too. “Snowboarding is something that always kept us together as kids,” André says. “I think a lot of siblings can relate to those moments when you’re young and everything is fresh and you’ve got your best friend there to take it on with you. Through making Blood Brothers , and hav-ing that time together to process what we were both going through— and to listen to each other and laugh with each other, and laugh at each other—it all really helped bring us back to who we are as people, and who we are as siblings.” Blood Brothers can be seen at www.thesnowboardersjournal.com and is sure to silence anyone who claims that “They don’t make snowboarding movies like they used to.” 030 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal frequency 15.4: Page 30
