Youth activists rally to remove the R rating from a documentary about bullied teens.
It’s been said that online petitions are basically worthless. But in the case of the Weinstein Company documentary about a teen boy being bullied at school, an online petition started at Change.org kicked off a large wave of activism around the film. Celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and Justin Bieber spoke out against the rating. Bieber told TMZ,
“I think Bully can serve a purpose, there’s more to it than just the curse words,” Justin said. “At the end of the day, they don’t know the thing [bullying] that it’s doing to the kids in schools.”
Kenneth Turan gave a great review of the film, which documents bullying in schools and interviews the families of children who’ve taken their own lives due to bullying. If you don’t know much about the film, please watch Turan’s review here.
One boy featured in the film resonates with you, that sweet face of youth in glasses and too-big teeth, reminiscent of either ourselves as kids or someone we’ve known. You can’t detach from this boy, you can’t look away from his pain—as much as you may want to.
Some people are concerned that an unrated film may be even less accessible to children, but hopefully that won’t prove to be the case. After seeing extended trailers for the film, I’m glad that the documentary is going to be accessible to teens, but I feel that teachers, school administrators, and parents are the people who should be rushing to see it.
After all, it’s the job of us grown-ups to keep children safe, and until we look straight into the eyes of these young people who are suffering, we may not realize how important it is that we put an end to bullying—as best we can—once and for all.
The film opens nationwide today.
About Joanna Schroeder
Wow. This movie sounds so enticing, tackling bullying with no-holds-barred honesty.
I just hope they feature girls doing the bullying as well, to boys even. If not, well…no big loss. Sort of.
If you watch the various trailers and the review I linked to, you see that girls are shown as bullies, too. Especially to the girl who is perceived as gay. But also to the boy on the bus, they’re the taunters.
I haven’t seen the film (but I did run into Harvey Weinstein in the drug store yesterday, as an odd coincidence), but I think the film as a whole will be a real education for a lot of people
I saw this discussed on a news show last night. Even that bit was hard to watch, for any parent.
“Some people are concerned that an unrated film may be even less accessible to children, but hopefully that won’t prove to be the case.”
That is definitely a problem, Joanna, but I really think this movies is going to go viral. It is that powerful and there are that many kids who it speaks to very directly. The word will get around.
And you make a very good point about who needs ot see this. It is crucial for kids temsleves to see this because even victims of bullying may not know to call it that. One kid who was bullied on a bus regularly was interviewed, and he just called it messing aorund. that’s a very normal defensive reaction, but he could hardly get any help that way. But more than that parents and teachers have to see this so they know to identify bullying when they see it and they know to ask kids the right questions to get the information they need to help.
It’s just devastating to see that one school admin completely minimize what the boy is telling her, just saying, “I think you two could be great friends.” as if the bullied kid just needed to somehow try harder to make the bully like him.
Makes me ill. I hope to God she sees that movie and changes the way she relates to children completely.
Horrible
What a disgusting bit of minimilising, that woman does.