Global Anti-Bully Project to Launch in Australia
13 October 2015 at 9:14 am
The Not for Profit BULLY Project, a social action schools campaign inspired by the award-winning US film BULLY, will launch in Australia in October.
The organisers said the BULLY Project aims to reach 100,000 Australian children, to create a new generation of empathetic and educated individuals around the issues of bullying.
The BULLY Project Australia is being initiated by the Shark Island Institute and The Caledonia Foundation and is supported by Documentary Australia Foundation, GoodPitch2 Australia, Shark Island Productions, UNLTD, Bennelong Foundation and The Pierce Armstrong Foundation.
Executive Director of Shark Island Institute and the founder and Patron of Documentary Australia Foundation, Ian Darling, said the BULLY Project was embarking on a global movement to stop bullying, transform childrens’ lives and change a culture of bullying into one of empathy and action.
“The power of our work lies in the participation of individuals together with a remarkable list of partners we’ve gathered who collectively work to create safe, caring and respectful schools and communities,” Darling said.
“We’re working with ACMI (The Australian Centre for the Moving Image), Samsung and the Foundation for Young Australians’ Propeller Project, Monkey Baa Theatre Company, PROJECT ROCKIT and the Victorian Department of Education and Training to present a blockbuster suite of initiatives for the whole school and community to get involved with to create a generation of Upstanders.”
Darling said the statistics showed that in Australia, one in four Year 4-9 students were bullied and bullying was the number one social issue for students across all states and territories.
The film BULLY is a character driven documentary, directed by Sundance and Emmy-award winning filmmaker, Lee Hirsch, delivering a look at how bullying has touched five children and their families.
“Filmed over the course of the 2009/10 school year, BULLY opens a window onto the pained and often endangered lives of bullied kids, revealing a problem that transcends geographic, racial, ethnic and economic borders,” Darling said.
“It documents the responses of teachers and administrators to aggressive behaviours that defy ‘kids will be kids’ clichés, and it captures a growing movement among parents and youths to change how bullying is handled in schools, in communities and in society as a whole.
"BULLY is a stunning example of how documentary film can facilitate social change globally.
"BULLY and the 200 partners that the project has mobilised are encouraging entire communities to come together to take action. As a result over 3.7 million young people have seen BULLY in the US, and it’s been released in over 15 countries. BULLY and its supporting resources provide teachers, students, schools and communities the tools to teach empathy and shift human behaviour.”
Support The BULLY Project through Documentary Australia Foundation.
