Tauranga Boys' College Fortress 40 2024 participants.
Tauranga Boys' College Fortress 40 2024 participants.
Men’s mental health is in the spotlight as Tauranga Boys’ College screens a documentary to shed light on an issue commonly faced issue by students at boys-only colleges.
On Saturday, Tauranga Boys’ College is hosting a special screening of the Fortress 40 documentary.
It captured the journey of senior prefects as they endured 40 hours of intense physical activities - running, gym sessions, carrying logs and more - to raise awareness of men’s mental health.
“The 25-minute film highlights the emotional and physical highs and lows of the event and explores how the boys found strength together to complete the challenge,” said college teacher Gemma Cook.
“It’s a powerful story of resilience, leadership, and unity, and we’d love to share it with the wider community.”
All funds raised will go towards the 2025 Fortress 40 challenge on September 12 and 13.
“In true Fortress 40 fashion, attendees will also have the opportunity to take part in some light-hearted F40-style challenges before the screening,” said Cook.
People are encouraged to bring a change of clothes and a towel if they’d like to get involved.
Following the film, there will be an Q&A with Fortress 40 team members from 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Following the film, there will be an exclusive Q&A with members of the Fortress 40 teams from 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Cook said the event was “a powerful opportunity to raise awareness around men’s mental health and highlight the work being done by our prefects to promote it”, said Cook.
The documentary has been directed and produced by Senã Pictures, who will be present on the night, along with representatives from Movember NZ.
Founder of Fortress 40
In 2023, when Kane McBrydie was the college’s head boy, he attended a Christchurch conference with other head boys of boys-only schools.
Organisers presented on issues commonly faced by students at boys-only schools.
“One of the ones that really resonated with me was about mental health and they showed some pretty daunting statistics.”
On the flight home, McBrydie decided he wanted to do something about it … Fortress 40 was born.
He and deputy head boy Jake Corney decided to create a challenge so intense that people would have to listen to their message.
“The 40-hour challenge seems pretty impossible … it’s a metaphor for mental health struggles.
“If you’re facing them alone, they can seem impossible and extremely difficult to overcome. However, when you face it with a group, when you have help from your mates … it becomes doable.”
He said that first Fortress 40 was “extremely difficult”.
”Definitely the hardest thing that I or any of the boys I dealt with have done.”
Tauranga Boys' College 2023 Fortress 40 participants 30 minutes after completing the 40 hours. They were the first to do the challenge, including co-founders Jake Corney, third from the left, and Kane McBrydie, fourth from the left.
It all became worth it in the 35th hour when the boys were struggling to continue.
“It was our final gym I think, and we had no music because the gym speakers weren’t working. Everyone was in the trenches.”
Then, the team received a message from someone in the UK letting them know that they had been struggling with their mental health for the past 15 years, and the team had inspired them to go and ask for help.
“It was so touching. Our goal for the event was to inspire one person to go and talk to someone. We ended up inspiring so many more people.
“That was so awesome to see that it actually did have an effect.”
