A word about “Blood Brothers” from its creator, André Rober Beriau:

We were introduced to Punk Rock the same time our cousin, Nate, showed us skateboarding and snowboarding, our first and second love – respectfully. Punk Rock taught us to not care what others think of us, and to do the best we can – to do it our own way. Jacques spent most of his youth attending punk shows at places like the E-Bar in Worcester, and other notorious venues in Boston. As Jacques was moving out of the Punk community and began focusing his attention on snowboarding, I was introduced to Hardcore music through bands like The Cro-Mags, American Nightmare, and SLAPSHOT. While Punks united around telling mainstream society to fuck off, Hardcore kids banded together to use their voice for change. For me, that’s what I always loved about Hardcore music. As adults I think our careers speak to what we’ve learned from the lyrics that streamed out of the record player in our shared-bedroom. We’re both full-time teachers, who focus on the students, the school, and the best way to approach a lesson, without listening to the burnt-out naysayers in our buildings.

Over the past seven years my brother and I have been through some heavy shit. Jacques went through a divorce, while I battled PTSD from two years in Sierra Leone, West Africa. At one point, I didn’t know if I’d ever have a relationship with Jacques again. Working on this project helped us tighten the bonds that hadn’t been fully severed, but were damn near close to breaking. We’ve been skateboarding together for close to 30 years, and at times, he’s been the only friend I’ve had. Working on this film helped bring us back to those cold January nights as kids riding under our father’s shop lights and hiking the hill in our backyard. We pissed each other off, made one another laugh until we pissed our pants, watch my car crash itself, and realized that at the end of the day, all you fucking have in this cold world is your family – it’s important to protect that – blood or not. Family is Family.

Skateboarding, Snowboarding, Punk Rock, Hardcore, Education, they all come together in our daily lives, and that’s what brought us to produce this film. It’s a reaction to what we’ve seen, and what we saw. Growing up on the East Coast, our heroes rode our local mountain, Wachusett, and took the chairlift with us. Riders like Shane Flood, Kevin Susienka, Liam Gallagher, Nick Franke, John Cavan, and Mike Baker. They didn’t have a park, they didn’t have a $3,000 camera, or a parent dropping them off at the hill, buying them lift tickets and lunch, and they certainly weren’t going to show everyone every photograph or Digital8 clip they got while filming. They rode what they had, and they rode it Goddamn well. This film began as a simple project of putting together something recorded on Super8, and evolved into a concept that focuses on what we’ve always loved as snowboarders, skaters, punk rockers, and hardcore kids. It’s meant to pay respect to those who came before, motivated us, and introduced us to friends we’ve had for over twenty-years.

Most of the snowboard equipment we rode throughout the winter was 20 years old, because that’s what we had lying around. Snowboarding is about a feeling, a moment, and an experience. It’s not about what a person rides, or how much they spent on it. Snowboarding is about the people you’re with, the family it provides, and the Do It Yourself attitude that is often lost in our ever media-saturated days. We’ve been fortunate to have people in our lives help support us in snowboarding, education, and our everyday struggles. People like Spike Prince, Herb Grignon, Andy Bubnowicz, Tabor Coates, Matt Jagemann, and Michael Tallone gave us an opportunity that we’ve always been grateful for, without their help, we wouldn’t be snowboarding today. Don’t forget what snowboarding and skateboarding is about, the world it opens up, and the people who came before you.
ALWAYS KEEP THE FAITH!