F.Y.I.

Australian Story interviews Bondi Hipster Christiaan Van Vuuren

Australian Story will tell the story of Christiaan Van Vuuren, one of the Bondi Hipsters, and how he went from being stuck in a hospital isolation ward being treated for drug-resistance TB to a well-known TV and film director.

The announcement:

‘It’s like being in gaol. He was terrified of never getting out.’ – Connor Van Vuuren

‘He took what could have been a terrible thing and turned it into something which gave him a new career’ – Dr Hazel Goldberg

‘After I’d cried it out I thought just go in there and make videos. One got 300,000 hits in a day.’- Christiaan Van Vuuren 

‘When I saw his first video I was just blown away. It was funny, amusing and accurate. It was like shining a light into a dark cave,’ – Dr Hazel Goldberg

A young man who started making YouTube clips to ease the boredom of being stuck in a quarantine ward is now tipped to be one of Australia’s top film and TV directors of the future.

Christiaan Van Vuuren says his burgeoning career as a filmmaker may never have happened, had he not been diagnosed with drug-resistant TB in 2009.

Confined to a ‘shoebox’ isolation room in Sydney Hospital, he made a short video which quickly became an internet sensation.

As the “Fully Sick Rapper,” he posted a series of humorous clips which documented his experiences during the 6 months in hospital.

After regaining his health and leaving hospital, he found further online success as one half of the ‘Bondi Hipsters,’ parodying fashion-loving, environmentally conscious residents of the beachside suburb.

Now he is about to hit the public eye as writer, director and co-star of ‘Soul Mates,’ a comedy series airing soon on national television.

The unlikely journey is the subject of Australian Story “Stuck in this Shoebox”, airing on 1st September.

Australian Story interviewed Christiaan Van Vuuren, his family, his doctor and his fellow “Bondi Hipster” Nick Boshier, a creator of the “Beached Az” cartoon series.

The Investment Manager for Screen Australia, Mike Cowap, told the program that Van Vuuren had dragged the organisation into the 21st century and forced it to take notice of YouTube as a source of great ideas and talent.

He predicts that Christiaan and his filmmaker brother Connor Van Vuuren may become Australia’s equivalent of the Coen brothers, the famous sibling film directors in the United States.

Source: Australian Story

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