TEEN TRUTH: BULLY & SCHOOL VIOLENCE – Film Review #1

September 13th, 2007

Polly Staffle Rating: (4 out of 4 stars)

“Your misery and hate will kill us all!” 
- My Chemical Romance
“Everyone is always making fun of me because of how I look… well I will get you back.” 
- Eric Harris

The world is filled with too much hate. You can chose to deny that, pretend it doesn’t involve you or anyone you know and look the other way as society destroys itself. Or you can accept it and do your part to change it. Sure, that might be a bit reminiscent of a Michael Jackson song, but as filmmaker Erahm Christopher asks, “If you’re not trying to make a difference, then what are you doing?”

Christopher sees teenagers as an important key to making any change for the better happen. The more we understand them and the better they understand themselves, the more open the lines of communication become. That’s essentially what a movement spearheaded by Christopher and his Horizon Intertainment producing partner John C. Pohl is all about. Their documentary “Teen Truth,” which is being distributed by B1 Films, and is planned to be the first in a series of short films produced in collaboration with teenagers for use as educational material, tackles the topics of bullying and school violence. A second film looking at drugs and alcohol is already in the works and a third on suicide will follow with a possible feature coming later down the road that would even incorporate sexuality.

Though these are all very important issues that have been sort of swept under the rug in the past and are heavily in need of discussing, perhaps none are more over due than bullying and violence. There are many who don’t see the connection of these two issues, which is evident with the lack of understanding in both the media and the entertainment world and the increasing number of incidents. Over the course of the last decade, more than 200 children have been wounded or killed in school shootings with eighty-seven deaths stretching over seven countries and twenty-three states. It seems to happen so often now, it doesn’t even faze us. We have become numb and desensitized that it’s just added to the list of things that kind of evoke a “what’s new?” response. “News flash: a professional athlete gets busted for doing something illegal, a seemingly happily married couple gets divorced, an entertainer gets plastic surgery, the United States drops bombs on another country, the Houston Texans lost and a kid shot up his school. So what’s new?” It’s sad to think, but it sure feels like no one cares.

Enter Christopher and Pohl. Shortly after the school shooting at Columbine, the idea behind “Teen Truth” was conceived. The goal was to give teenagers a chance to express themselves about the issue. They selected five teens from various backgrounds and ethnicities after 150 interviews. Those teens were given the tools to document their senior years using the internet and video cameras. What Christopher and Pohl found was no shock. The students had a lot to say on a number of topics and a lot of what each felt ran parallel despite differences in demographics. All were coping with rejection, loneliness, harassment and various forms of bullying. To go with the footage shot by the teenagers, Christopher and Pohl conducted interviews with various educators and psychologists to see what they had to say. They also used teenagers to film a reenactment of a student, played by David Machado, carrying out a high school massacre. These scenes, partly directed by teenager Shane Williamson, who also served as assistant editor, were then intercut with actual footage and 911 tapes from the Columbine tragedy, along with interview clips from witnesses of the Santana High School shooting in California. The final product is a simply brilliant must see for parents and their children that will hopefully soon be playing in every school district.

After watching “Teen Truth,” I thought back to all of the educational videos shown to me through my entire career as a student. They were always dull and laughable with poor production qualities. They lectured and never entertained. Many students would sleep through the films, while others found better things to do like passing notes. But this film is different as it manages to be educational and entertaining. Statistics such as “30 percent of teens are involved in school bullying” or “52 percent of teens feel pressure to look certain ways” pop up on the screen, while soundbytes from various individuals share view points. The film also runs down assorted forms of bullying like teasing, intimidation, exclusion, spreading rumors and physical attacks, while noting bullying causes isolation, anxiety, anger and can lead to students wanting to kill. Christopher uses quick cuts, graphics and subtitles to emphasize certain quotes and the haunting music of Darren Fung. Somehow the whole thing manages to come off slick, yet raw at the same time. It feels less like something a high school student would be forced to watch at school and more like something they would chose to watch at home.

More importantly though, “Teen Truth” is the most understanding portrayal of school violence ever captured on film. That’s because Christopher isn’t looking to place blame with his film. He’s not interested in scapegoats. No mention of any types of music, movies, entertainers or video games that possibly influenced any shootings are ever brought up. Christopher’s film is more of a sympathetic hand reaching out, hoping to help in whatever way possible. Mostly what we get are teenagers candidly sharing their thoughts and voicing their opinions – which is all any of the gunmen ever seemed to want to do in the first place.

When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into their high school in Littleton, Colo. on April 20, 1999 and proceeded to kill 12 of their peers, a teacher, and wound 24 others, a lot of people didn’t understand why. Seven years after the event, the contents of Eric and Dylan’s journals were finally made available to the public. Both were filled with sadness, loneliness and hate from being rejected by peers. Eric penned, “Whatever I do people make fun of me,” while Dylan wrote, “I don’t know what I do wrong with people, it’s like they set out to hate and ignore me.” These writings clearly show individuals that are hurting. They felt alone. They felt rage. They wanted acceptance. They wanted to be noticed. They wanted to be heard.
One of the girls interviewed in “Teen Truth,” making a general statement about all teenage gunmen, probably said it best. “They wanted to make their statement and say, ‘This is the way you treated us.’ And they feel that this is the repercussion of not treating people like they’re actually human.”

Perhaps now more people will begin to understand that. In Michael Moore’s Oscar winning documentary “Bowling for Columbine” Marilyn Manson was asked what he would have said to Eric and Dylan to prevent the Columbine tragedy from happening. Manson replied, “I wouldn’t say a single word to them, I would listen to what they have to say and that’s what no one did.” Though too late for Eric, Dylan and the other students enraged to the point of violence, “Teen Truth” is giving high school students a voice on the subject. Now hopefully someone is listening.

- CCF, September 2006

“What are you trying to say, I’m crazy? When I went to your schools. I went to your churches. I went to your institutional learning facilities. So how can you say I’m crazy?”
– Suicidal Tendencies

“…Don’t expect the end of the world to come one day out of the blue – it’s been happening every day for a long time.”
– Marilyn Manson