Weinsteins Want to Push Lee Hirsch’s ‘The Bully Project’ Around

In one of those happenings that is so (in)appropriate that it’s downright poetic, the Weinstein Company has gained North American distribution rights to The Bully Project, a documentary by Lee Hirsch (2002 Sundance winner for Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony) about the repercussions of controlling, pushy, and oppressive behaviour.

While this move seems perhaps almost comically counter-productive, the film is coming off a strong unveiling at Tribeca, with hints of winning the Audience Award there, and if there’s one thing we know the Weinsteins like more than dictatorially oppressing their filmmakers’ visions, it’s winning awards. The film will quickly be jumping across the border next week to screen at Canada’s Hot Docs, where it can pick up even more steam from Toronto’s uncannily Academy-synched audiences. Internationally, the Weinsteins also have the rights for the film in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Germany. We can look forward to a late-year opening to push for awards, or perhaps even an opening around August to coincide with the back-to-school season.

The Gist: Every year, more than 18 million kids are bullied in America alone. This documentary spends a year looking at “America’s bullying crisis”, providing an intimate window into the homes, classrooms, lunchrooms, and principals’ offices where bullying and its consequence are dealt with, the goal ultimately being to spark a catalyst for changing the nation’s schoolyard epidemic. This is giving off some pretty heavy Frederick Wiseman vibes (High School), given his penchant for spending a year immersing in a location and observing the goings-on of the institution, though this is clearly more pointed toward a pre-meditated subject than Wiseman’s work is.

Worth Noting: Hirsch’s Amandla! won the Documentary Audience Award at Sundance when it premiered there in 2002. Combined with his Tribeca success, it looks like Hirsch has a pretty sound formula for moving the masses. Another Tribeca documentary premiere, Limelight, is following a similar trajectory to The Bully Project, getting picked up for distribution (Magnolia), and then continuing on to Hot Docs.

Do We Care?: Given the spike in school shootings and other forms of violence over the last couple of decades, now seems as good a time as any to confront the problem of bullying, which is widely believed to be the major cause that’s pushing kids over the edge. If this film can reach the public and make a significant change like it seems to be capable of, then this news of the Weinsteins getting their hands on it sounds like the best thing that could have happened for both the film and every kid under 18. A great follow-up might be how the bullyism can continue well into adulthood as was the case with a particular head honcho at a popular  indie  film distribution company of the mid 90’s.