Five years ago Christiaan Van Vuuren was bored and stuck in a hospital isolation ward. From that unlikely beginning he built a booming career that’s drawn attention around the world, and now is being called a trailblazer in film and TV.
His story will be told in Australian Story: Stuck in this Shoebox on Monday September 1 at 8pm on ABC.
Christiaan 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.
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.
Screen Australia investment manager 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 US.
Producers: Ben Cheshire and Winsome Denyer
Executive Producer: Deb Fleming