Yesterday, we received some big news from The Weinstein Company regarding the upcoming documentary Bully. Today, TWC has declared today “Twitter Tuesday” for the film, and they want everyone to show support by making it a trend.
On Monday, TWC announced that they would be releasing the documentary as unrated on March 30th. This came after a long struggle with the MPAA over an “R” rating that they gave the film.
Bully was given the rating by the MPAA, narrowly missing the preferred PG-13 rating by just one vote. The Weinstein Company objected, as did hundreds of thousands of people who signed an online petition started by a high school student on change.org. The main qualm that people had with the R rating (for language) was that it would prevent kids from seeing the film, which of course is largely educational.
The MPAA said that “the R rating is not a judgment on the value of any movie” and that “the rating simply conveys to parents that a film has elements strong enough to require careful consideration before allowing their children to view it,” but TWC decided to buck that rating and go unrated.
Now, TWC and the filmmakers want Twitter users to “dedicate their tweets” by retweeting this:
The link takes you to a site where you can sign up to be part of “The Bully Project.” Cynically, this Twitter initiative is good free advertising for the film which opens up soon. On the other hand, it’s a great way to spread awareness of a serious issue and get people to do their own research on the epidemic of bullying in today’s schools.
As of the writing of this article, Bully has not yet become a national trend. But people are tweeting the message as well as their commentary on the film (which premiered last night in LA).
#BullyMovie was SO good! Not a dry eye in the place. Can’t believe humans are so horrible to each other. Let’s end this! #love
Holy cow,#BullyMovie. Devote Your Tweets to Stop #Bullying (#Tuesday on #Anderson)
Today is Twitter Tuesday! Make it Trend: TweetIf you haven’t seen the heartbreaking trailer yet, check it out below: