Just Boys IRL (2018)

From virtual to reality, Just Boys, is a repeating nanodoc series about a group of sixteen and seventeen-year-old boys who found each other in online gaming world but are yet to find their true selves. We are with them as they step outside their childhood homes to meet each other for the first time, interailing through Europe in the summer of Brexit. Afflicted by mental health, loneliness, sexual identity and spots these young men decide when to let the viewers into their lives, by shouting "action" and when to "cut" throughout this raw autobiographical journey in film. Meet Owen, Sam, Jack, Cameron and Stan. Five British teenagers from different parts of the country and very different walks of life, who share just one thing; they all feel like outsiders. Online the boys bond on a social level, which far surpasses local friendships and family. These boys display an uncensored and honest depiction of the dynamics of a boy group, in this coming-of-age fifteen-day travelogue, captured by a small "embedded" camera team. It's a story about developing identity and the microcosm of complex expectations that characterizes being a young male today.