Tribeca doc leads the battle against school bullying

By Kevin Lally

One of the first pickups from the Tribeca Film Festival is The Weinstein Company's acquisition of The Bully Project, Lee Hirsch's documentary focusing on five families impacted by the age-old problem of bullying in our nation's schools. The issue has gained a higher profile this past year from the rash of suicides of gay youth targeted by their peers, but Hirsch's subjects represent a wider cross-section of victims.

The film's opening moments are among its most painful, as we watch home movies of Tyler Long, a happy little boy who becomes increasingly withdrawn as he ages before our eyes. With his father's first mention of the boy in past tense, you cringe: After years of bullying, the 17-year-old Tyler hung himself in his bedroom closet.

Equally shocking is the story of 16-year-old Kelby, who came out as a lesbian in her Bible Belt home town of Tuttle, Oklahoma. Kelby describes a classroom atmosphere in which even her teachers single her out with hostile referencesto the burning of "faggots," and laughs off an incident in which she was struck by a minivan. Shunned by much of her community, Kelby emerges as the toughest kid in the film, confident enough to attract a core group of devoted friends, including a few defiant straight girls.

Fourteen-year-old Alex of Sioux City, Iowa, is far less capable of taking on the world outside his loving family. Lean, gawky, bespectacled and with thick lips that prompt kids to call him "Fishface," Alex can't ride the school bus without being punched, choked or ridiculed--assaults that we see for ourselves and which prompt the filmmakers to intervene on Alex's behalf. Watching the management style of oblivious school administrator Kim Lockwood, we understand why director Hirsch felt the need to get directly involved. She's ridden that bus, she tells Alex's parents, and never seen a hint of behavioral problems.

Another bus provides the most disturbing moment in the film, as video footage shows 14-year-old Ja'Meya of Yazoo County, Mississippi brandishing a gun and threatening her classmates after one too many bullying incidents. Arrested and charged with 45 felony counts, Ja'Meya faces years in prison as a consequence of her impulsive, desperate act.

Late in the film, we meet the Smalleys of Perkins, Oklahoma, whoseson Ty committed suicide at age 11. Ty's father Kirk founds the website "Stand for the Silent," a support system for families dealing with the relentless bullying of their children. The group also stages rallies in which young people are encouraged to befriend kids who are struggling alone and to speak out against bullying incidents.

Many adults watching The Bully Project will recall their own personal confrontations with bullies or memories of beleaguered classmates. Some will agree with theview of certain school authorities in the film that "kids will be kids" or "boys will be boys." But Hirsch's film reveals the condescension behind that attitude, the undervaluing of children's experiences, sometimes hellish, as if they were not as vital and serious as an adult's. The consequences of bullying can be grave indeed, and with The Weinstein Company now behind it, The Bully Project will open even more minds to that harsh reality.