BULLY

US, 2011, 98 Minutes, Colour.
Directed by Lee Hirsch.

1. The documentary style? The target audience? Information, challenge, the campaign? The number of institutes supporting this documentary?

2. American bullying, peer to peer? Especially in schools? The universal experience of bullying?

3. The director, his perspective, his camerawork, his concerns? The choice of focal characters? Their parents?

4. The introduction to Tyler Long, the use of family photographs and home movies, building up a picture of Tyler, bright as a child, growing morose, alone, the bullying? At home? His suicide? The visuals of his room, the closet, his hanging himself?

5. The introduction of Alex, his story, his family, age? The detail of family life, his birth, premature? His survival? His mother’s support? His younger sister, her fear of being bullied like him? Because she was his sister? Seeing her at home, at school, in the classroom, by herself, trying to make friends with people, talk? The detail of school? The bus?

6. The picture of the school, the work of the assistant principal? Seeing her in action, observing the students? Dealing with the bullying? Her handling of situations? Her comments?

7. Kelby, her parents, her father and his observations about the church, a homophobic prejudice? Kelby, her friends, her behaviour? Tomboy? Her parents accepting her? The students at school and their inability to accept her? The verbal abuse?

8. Ja’Meya?, her relationship with her mother, her absent father? Mississippi? In the bus? Being bullied, taunted? Her getting her mother’s gun? The episode in the bus? Her mother, concern? The authorities? The presumption that only physical bullying could have any effect? Her being charged with kidnap, threat to bodily harm? Her treatment, the charges dropped, her going to an institution? Her loneliness? Bonding with her mother?

9. The Smalley family, the story of Ty being brought in late? Another suicide story? Age eleven? Filling in the background, his life, his friends, the persecution, his killing himself?

10. The Smalley family, their interviews, ordinary people? The campaigns? The Longs and their campaign to keep Tyler’s memory alive? The visuals of the meetings? The protests, the public assemblies?

11. The nature of bullying, physical, emotional, mental? Racist? Homophobic? Verbal slurs?

12. The film raising awareness via story? Audiences identifying with the children, with their parents? The challenge? The challenge to bullies – and the glimpses of the bullies throughout the film? The effect of the film – and its potential use?

13. The documentary style? The target audience? Information, challenge, the campaign? The number of institutes supporting this documentary?

14. American bullying, peer to peer? Especially in schools? The universal experience of bullying?

15. The director, his perspective, his camerawork, his concerns? The choice of focal characters? Their parents?

16. The introduction to Tyler Long, the use of family photographs and home movies, building up a picture of Tyler, bright as a child, growing morose, alone, the bullying? At home? His suicide? The visuals of his room, the closet, his hanging himself?

17. The introduction of Alex, his story, his family, age? The detail of family life, his birth, premature? His survival? His mother’s support? His younger sister, her fear of being bullied like him? Because she was his sister? Seeing her at home, at school, in the classroom, by herself, trying to make friends with people, talk? The detail of school? The bus?

18. The picture of the school, the work of the assistant principal? Seeing her in action, observing the students? Dealing with the bullying? Her handling of situations? Her comments?

19. Kelby, her parents, her father and his observations about the church, a homophobic prejudice? Kelby, her friends, her behaviour? Tomboy? Her parents accepting her? The students at school and their inability to accept her? The verbal abuse?

20. Ja’Meya?, her relationship with her mother, her absent father? Mississippi? In the bus? Being bullied, taunted? Her getting her mother’s gun? The episode in the bus? Her mother, concern? The authorities? The presumption that only physical bullying could have any effect? Her being charged with kidnap, threat to bodily harm? Her treatment, the charges dropped, her going to an institution? Her loneliness? Bonding with her mother?

21. The Smalley family, the story of Ty being brought in late? Another suicide story? Age eleven? Filling in the background, his life, his friends, the persecution, his killing himself?

22. The Smalley family, their interviews, ordinary people? The campaigns? The Longs and their campaign to keep Tyler’s memory alive? The visuals of the meetings? The protests, the public assemblies?

23. The nature of bullying, physical, emotional, mental? Racist? Homophobic? Verbal slurs?

24. The film raising awareness via story? Audiences identifying with the children, with their parents? The challenge? The challenge to bullies – and the glimpses of the bullies throughout the film? The effect of the film – and its potential use?