[Press release from the 2050 Group.]
Screenings:
Friday, October 10 at 1:00pm @ United Methodist Church of
Chagrin Falls Saturday, October 11 at 12:15pm @ United Methodist Church of Chagrin Falls
Mentor,
Ohio, is largely white, upper middle class, and listed as one of the
“Top 100 Places to Live in the United States,” but between 2006 and 2010
five teenagers from this proud community - known for its safe streets
and good schools - take their own lives. “Mentor” follows the families
of two of these victims as they uncover a shocking story of bullying.
The Vidovics swap the perils of the war in Bosnia for an American
culture of conformity where their daughter ends up enduring constant
bullying from 8th grade on. Kids make fun of her name, her Croatian
accent, and her clothes. The Mohats’ son, active in musical theater, does not tell his parents of his daily verbal and physical abuse, being shoved and called “queer” at school.
The
Vidovics and Mohats both sue the school district, which pursues a
policy of denial, the destruction of evidence, and willful refusal to
address bullying at all. Their stories explore how bullying has become
an acceptable method of social warfare conducted by children, sanctioned
by adults, and when it ends fatally, a story much larger than Mentor’s
rural zip code. Through evocative interviews with the families, and
conspicuous silence from the entire Mentor School District, the film
conducts an unflinching examination of how far one community will go to protect the status quo.
‘Mentor’ on Chagrin Documentary FF website:
Directed by ALIX LAMBERT
Produced by JEDD & TODD WIDER
Cinematography by MARTINA RADWIN
Editing by HANNAH NEUFELD
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