Twelve-year-old Jonah Maxwell's experience of bullying after he moved from Dublin to Illinois at the age of seven inspired him to make a short film which has racked up more than half a million views on YouTube.
The Bully weaves the personal experiences of Jonah and his friends and classmates together to tell the story of what bullying is really like for schoolchildren today.
“Bullying can be physical, sexual, verbal or emotional. In 2016 it is almost impossible to know how much of this goes on after school on Facebook, Twitter, Kik, Poke, Whisper, Tumblr, Vine or Instagram,” he says in the film.
“My dad told me that when he was a kid the bullying would stop at 3.30pm every day. I told him it is not like that anymore. They can get you 24/7. They can get you anytime, anywhere.”
Jonah, who is in 7th grade in St Charles near Chicago, did all the filming for the six-minute video himself. His father David, a filmmaker, helped with the writing and editing, and his mother Jennifer, who teaches dance and drama, held workshops with the children before filming.
“Some of the kids shared their stories anonymously,” she says. “They had the opportunity to write down experiences, personal or something they had seen, but they didn’t put their names on the pages. That helped Jonah with the research.”
The children share experiences of exclusion, physical and emotional abuse, namecalling, body shaming, online rumours, and what it is like getting alerts on their phones of comments made about them on social media by “faceless” bullies.
"The kids in the film are mostly my good friends and some other kids in middle schools around here who wanted to be in it," says Jonah, who moved from Killiney in Dublin to Illinois with his parents and brother Danny in 2011, when his father was offered work there.
“I was bullied in elementary school when I moved here first. I was also bullied in 5th grade and that’s when I made a decision to just try hang out with kids who were nice to me. I have also witnessed bullying in school.”
He says he is delighted with the response to the film, which has been watched in schools across the US and in Ireland in the past two weeks.
“It’s amazing! I never knew this could happen. I’m so happy about it,” he says.
His mum Jennifer says bullying is a topic the whole family feel strongly about.
“We had no idea the film would have such a great impact everywhere but he certainly seems to have struck a nerve with both adults and kids which is fantastic,” she says.
“We want to support our children as best we can with whatever they wish to achieve and the fact that Dave is a designer and film maker really made this project possible.”
