For two Great Neck South High School students, the way to make noise about bullying prevention is with a silent film.
Sisters Melora and Lelina Chang are associate producers of “Strain,” a short film the siblings hope will raise awareness of bullying more effectively than typical health class lectures.
The film, which was written and directed by their older sister Yin Chang in Hollywood, tells of two girls whose friendship is strained by high school social divisions and the resulting tragic consequences of clique-driven bullying.
Melora and Lelina said they both have friends who have been severely bullied, but that the way the problem is taught in school often fails to engage students.
“We don’t talk about bullying that much, but when we do it shouldn’t be in a boring way,” Melora Chang said.
So when their sister, who grew from being bullied herself in high school to winning roles in television series including the CW’s teen drama “Gossip Girl,” began writing the script for her anti-bullying project, Melora and Lelina were willing to jump on board. The two students reviewed the film’s script, helping to gauge its accuracy compared to their high school experiences.
”We wanted to put some in put because obviously this film would be targeting our age,” Lelina Chang said. “Melora and I looked over the script and told her what made sense and what didn’t make sense.”
The sisters hope to have the film screened both in Great Neck South High School and schools outside Great Neck.
Lelina said she plans on sending a letter about “Strain” to state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola), a member of the Senate’s Education Committee, to help the film gain wider exposure.
“Basically we do want to spread it to different schools – we haven’t done that yet,” Lelina said.
The film will also be getting a boost from the PACER Center, a national advocacy group that runs anti-bullying programs.
A spokesperson for the PACER Center said the group plans on incorporating “Strain” into anti-bullying tool kits that it distributes to educators.
The film’s creators decided to make it dialogue-free, Melora said, to both increase its potential reach to non-English speaking audiences and heighten the focus on what the characters are going through.
“We wanted to focus on the emotions of the characters and we wanted to make this an international film,” Melora said.
The story, which centers on a girl’s eventual suicide after her best friend turns a blind eye to bullying as part of an effort to fit in to a more popular clique, is designed to broach a difficult subject in an approachable way, the sisters said.
“It’s about loyalty, friendship and obviously bullying,” Lelina said. “When teachers start talking about bullying, people start being very uncomfortable.”
The film, which stars “Secret Life of the American Teenager” actress Francia Raisa, was accepted at The Long Island International Film Expo, the Fort Myers Beach Film Festival, and the Minnesota Speechless Film festival. Its Long Island International Film Expo screening will take place July 23 at Bellmore Movies.
The sisters, who hope to have the 11-minute film in classrooms this fall, said people interested in the film can reach them by e-mail at lelina@strainfilm.com and melora@strainfilm.com, or visit www.strainfilm.com.
