It may well be the most talked-about documentary in America. The subjects of Bully and its director, Lee Hirsch, have appeared on nearly every news program in the country since their visit to Columbia in March for True/False Film Fest. The filmmaker used hidden cameras on school buses and inside real middle and high schools in our country to show the severity of bullying some kids are facing in their everyday lives. Because of the violent reality of what happens in those public places, the MPAA assigned an R rating for the film’s theatrical release. But Hirsch, his subjects, and the film’s distributor, Harvey Weinstein, wanted this film to be viewed by kids and parents everywhere. After much debate, Hirsch relented to the removal of some of the expletive language in the film, but demanded that a harsh scene depicting bullies in action be left intact. The rating for the theatrical release version of the film was reassigned as PG-13 without cutting the critical scene. Now the PG-13 version of the film opens at Ragtag Cinema in Columbia on Friday, May 18.
Many ticket seekers had to be turned away due to the overwhelmingly positive response to Bully during its two sold-out screenings at Jesse Hall and Missouri Theatre during the True/False Film Fest. This situation resulted in a promise to the community to bring the film back to the organization’s home-base theatre, Ragtag Cinema during its theatrical run. The film’s local sponsor during the fest, The Crossing also continues its commitment to the film’s message through a generous donation that will provide a free ticket for up to 500 kids under the age of 18 who attend the film with a parent’s paid admission. The Crossing has been a long time sponsor of the fest’s True Life Film and Fund. Each year T/F co-founders and programmers David Wilson and Paul Sturtz select one film as the True Life Film, and for 2012 that film was Bully. The fund is an opportunity to give back to the subjects of a documentary film who have given their story to the world, despite how painful the story might be, and most often, with no monetary compensation for having done so. This year, the True Life Fund raised $15,000 from community members and a grant from the Bertha Foundation matched those efforts, so that the families featured in Bully were awarded a total of $30,000.
Dave Cover, pastor at The Crossing, commented on the importance of this film, “Every adult knows that bullying is not new. But now with today’s 24-hour social media, victims of bullying can never really go home. And the pain and the isolation from being bullied are far more intense today than in the past. So I think the playing field has changed significantly today. And parents and teachers and everyone else need to become aware of the new realities. This film is a tremendous tool in opening our eyes to that and hopefully sparking important conversations at home and at school.”
“So often we screen very moving films and afterward, the audience wants to ‘do something’… with this film, it’s really easy for us to do something,” remarked Tracy Lane, Executive Director for Ragtag Programming for Film and Media Art (the parent organization of Ragtag Cinema and True/False Film Fest). “As a parent of a middle-school student in Columbia, we are very fortunate that our kids have a reasonably safe environment for learning in this community. But there is room for improvement, and I think parents should shoulder some responsibility for making sure their own kids are not damaging that environment, or suffering silently as was Alex’s case in the film. We’re offering a chance to facilitate change…see this film with your kids, and encourage them to talk about what’s going on in their schools, their lives and in our shared community.”
Adult tickets are $8.50 and available daily for that day’s screenings at Ragtag Cinema. The box office opens one hour before the first screening each day. One free student ticket will be issued upon request with each paid adult admission. Free tickets are not available online. Showtimes will be published beginning Monday, May 14 by 5pm at www.ragtagfilm.com
The True/False Film Fest distributed $30,000 to the five families featured in the film Bully, this year’s True Life Fund selection about the impact of bullying on society. Capacity crowds attended screenings of Bully at the Missouri Theatre and Jesse Auditorium during True/False 2012. The True Life Fund—presented by the True/False Film Fest with support from The Crossing Church and media support by KOMU—raises money and awareness for the subjects of one nonfiction film each year and provides the audience with an opportunity to give back to the subjects on the screen. The funds raised will go to the main characters of the film, Alex Libby, Kelby Johnson, and Ja’Meya Jackson, and to the families of Tyler Long and Ty Smalley, two bullied kids who took their own lives. The money is a way of thanking them for sharing their stories and speaking out about bullying.
Two short films from True/False 2012 are already available to watch online:
Doug Nichol’s short Sunshine introduces us to an American ad man losing his mind in Shanghai. This film was part of our This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven shorts program:
This event at the U of Missouri is a good example of a film festival that has defined a role for itself, and built up a loyal audience over 10 years. Why spend a fortune to go to Cannes when there may be a terrific event like this nearby? Kevin Lee is a well-known blogger and was our correspondent at True/False.
More thumbs aloft: Sean Farnel, acquisitions consultant for Snagfilms and the former director of Canadian film fest Hot Docs (and, according to Paul Sturtz, ”the hardest working man in the documentary festival world”), apparently had a great time at T/F 2012. Which is saying something, seeing as he’s attended dozens of festivals around the world, from Pusan to Tehran to Karlovy Vary.
Read Farnel’s rave review of T/F ’12 on his blog, Ripping Reality.
The independent film website Sundance Now has posted six short interviews with filmmakers screening their work at T/F 2012. Watch videos of True Vision Award–winner Victor Kossakovsky, Gypsy Davy‘s Rachel Leah Jones, How to Survive a Plague‘s David France, and others on Sundance Now’s blog or on Youtube.
Here is Tiny Attic’s fourth and final highlight reel from the last day of the fest. (The T/F Photo Page has also been updated with wonderful images from Sunday. There are also a zillion photos on Facebook.) Many many thanks to literally thousands of people for literally thousands of things—way too many to enumerate here. See you next year…
With the buzz of this year’s 9th annual True/False Film Fest still ringing in our ears, we’re excited to announce the dates for next year’s gala tenth anniversary Fest. Mark your calendars:
True/False Film Fest TENTH ANNIVERSARY February 28–March 3, 2013
As you might expect, it’s going to be a big year for the festival. See you there!
Rushing across the street from one breathtaking portrait of an artist (Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present, at the Missouri Theatre) to another (Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, at the Picturehouse), a visitor from New York observed: ”You know how Marina needed lots of back rubs and baths after sitting all day at the MoMA? We’re gonna need that too—we’ve been sitting as much as she has!” This is the sort of exhilarated exhaustion True/False can bring to its visitors, particularly now that it’s Sunday, and the fest is heading into its final evening.
Finishing the True Life Run at Flat Branch Park. She might also benefit from a Marina Abramovic–style steam bath. Photo by Mallory Benedict.
Documentaries generate powerful emotions, of course—which can also make for a happily draining experience. We asked David Meiklejohn (visiting T/F with a large annual contingent from Portland, ME) and his friend David Osit (director of T/F 2012 film Building Babel) what they’d been up to. “I haven’t been doing much,” Meiklejohn said. “Just watching movies and crying.” Osit added: “I never cry in real life anymore. I only cry during documentaries.”
Gimme Truth! audience at the Blue Note. Not pictured: uncontrollable weeping. Photo by Parker Michels-Boyce.
More weeping has been reported. Holly Henry wrote in after attending yesterday’s Bully screening at Jesse Auditorium:
Every last seat was filled, and every last eye in the place was moist by the end. The families from the film took the stage to a standing ovation. It was difficult watch, but also hopeful: the movement they’ve started is getting kids to stand up and speak up when they see bullying occur. The True/Life Fund buckets were overflowing with donations to support their efforts.
It’s not too late to send in your reports of emotional overflow, director sightings, or Abramovician leg cramps. Drop a line to news@truefalse.org, or just tweet it out.
The ingenious team at Tiny Attic Productions (aka Paul and Chelsea) have posted another short highlight reel, this time covering Day Three of the fest, featuring interviews with Morgan Spurlock and Karim El Hakim…
