documentary

American director Lee Hirsch and producer Cynthia Lowen, whose timely and riveting — and heart breaking — documentary The Bully Project follows the lives of five bullied children and their families, hopes the film will not only be a teaching tool at schools across North America, but that it starts a whole anti-bullying movement, also called The Bully Project. Weinstein Company has now picked up the film for distribution and it is expected to hit theatres later this year.

Hirsch and Lowen sat down with Samaritanmag’s Jordan Adler at Toronto’s Victoria College, the media centre for the recent Hot Docs Canadian international documentary festival, where The Bully Project screened. Hirsh, it turns out, was bullied as a kid, and Lowen, a bystander.

There’s an emotional moment near the end of the documentary The Story Of Furious Pete where competitive eater Peter Czerwinski wolfs down an estimated 10 lbs of ribs, hugs his mother and tearfully tells her, “All for you, mom, all for you.”

That might seem like a strange action to dedicate to your mother, but it was a stunt to raise money for the MS Society of Canada in her honour. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the central nervous system, eight years ago.

“I see my mother every day and to see her suffering with it, I’m an only child and she’s pretty much my best friend, and anything I can do to help her out and support the cause in any way, I’ll do,” Czerwinski tells Samaritanmag.

In The Story Of Furious Pete, which screens at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival (April 29 to May 9; check www.hotdocs.ca for dates/times), director George Tsioutsioulas captures his unique story from anorexic teen to champion competitive eater. In the film, Czerwinski, now 24, explains at a meeting with the Mississauga, Ontario, chapter of the MS Society, “My mom’s always been there for me. She helped me get through my illness. I want to help her.”