The Streets Barber Web Series

Round 3 Films produced The Streets Barber documentary web series from concept to completion — winning Best Editing at Toronto Web Fest and reaching 100,000+ viewers.

The Challenge

Nasir Sobhani, The Streets Barber, walks Melbourne's streets giving people experiencing homelessness free haircuts and a fresh start. He wanted to share the stories of the people he met — challenging stereotypes and reducing stigma around homelessness, mental health, and vulnerability.

The challenge: tell these stories with dignity, avoiding "charity porn" narratives whilst creating engaging content that would build ongoing audience investment.

Our Approach

Full-service production: We partnered with Nasir from concept through delivery — developing the series structure, identifying characters, and producing all filming and post-production.

Character-focused episodes: Each episode centred on individual stories rather than following Nasir chronologically, allowing deeper emotional engagement and varied narrative approaches.

Documentary ethics: Working with vulnerable subjects experiencing homelessness and mental health challenges, we prioritised informed consent, trust-building, and portraying everyone with complexity and dignity.

Cinematic quality: We brought documentary filmmaking craft to web series production — interview-led storytelling, observational filming, and professional post-production.

The Results

Best Editing — Toronto Web Fest

Outstanding Reality Series — Australian Web Awards

International festival recognition: Official selections at Gold Coast Film Festival, Copenhagen Web Fest, Seoul Web Fest, Rio Web Fest, Melbourne Web Fest, and St Kilda Film Festival.

100,000+ views: Episodes continue finding audiences years after release, sparking conversations about homelessness and mental health.

Stigma reduction achieved: The series successfully challenged stereotypes by showing people experiencing homelessness as complex individuals with rich histories — not simplistic narratives.

Featured Stories

Phil's Story: A journey through criminal past, jail, living with manic bipolar disorder — and being crowned Australia's National Bird Calling Champion. Complex, unexpected, deeply human.

Stronger Together: Luke, Oona, and Phil's individual depression stories showed different mental health journeys and how community support helped each person differently.

Production Details

Location: Streets of Melbourne. Format: Multi-episode web series. Platform: YouTube, festival circuit. Subjects: Multiple individuals experiencing homelessness and mental health challenges.

Deliverables: Multi-episode documentary web series, social media cutdowns, festival-ready formats, and YouTube-optimised versions.

Services Used

Documentary Production — Full series development and production. Interview-led storytelling — on-camera testimonials with vulnerable subjects. Documentary editing — award-winning editing (Toronto Web Fest). Series production — multi-episode structure and character development.