Manchester teenagers pushing the anti-bullying message through YouTube film

Two teenagers have made a £10,000 film campaign against bullying which got almost 4,000 views in its first four days alone.

The pupils of Manchester Mesivta Jewish Grammar School in Bury created the film after hearing stories from classmates about being victimised so much they went home crying.

Now they’re hoping their message will go out to as many people as possible.

Eli Hassell and Asha Arnold were 15 and 16 respectively when they came up with the idea – and during lockdown wrote the script and and consulted experts such as rabbis, teachers and psychologists.

But they could not shoot when the pandemic was at its height. It is now completed and got its first airing on Sunday 23 May – and clocked up those hits very quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OuJ-jVr3Ds&t=72s

Filming took place over four days, with with 15 actors and production staff – and also with 10 major donors within the Jewish community helping out.

Eli, now 17, said: “In films about this sort of thing, there is usually a lot of verbal and physical bullying.

“But we wanted to focus on things which people say almost without knowing. I think everyone is basically a good person but if they say something which hurts someone they may not realise it.

“We looked into how to have the highest chance of succeeding with it. Asher and I decided that focusing on one culture would most likely create the most difference. We were able to partner with people, companies and charities we know within the Jewish community to help push this further.

“Also, as we know the Jewish culture quite well and live within it. We think we understood it enough to not only create a high-quality film, but also the right-quality film.

“We have been really pleased with the reaction. Parents were saying what their children had gone through and that they did not know how to help. They said the film really helped them. “Our donors were touched we were trying to do something.  Luckily we chose the right ones so we did not have to go to very many of them.

“We want to impact the educational system directly. Teachers these days don’t just do work face to face. We want to be able to offer them a whole package which helps lots of people.

When we first started making it, I was nervous people would make fun of the project so I didn’t really talk about it or show the idea to people. I was really surprised when everyone was so supportive. I’m very happy about that in a teenage school.

“We put out an advert to see if anyone was interested in playing a 10 or 11 year old and got 15 responses. All of them wanted to play the victim – so we had to persuade somebody to be the bully.

“The actor who agreed to be the teacher pulled out three weeks before shooting started, so we had to find somebody else very quickly. Luckily we had someone within three hours.”

Eli also runs a podcast which recently interviewed a leading MP. He is also doing an interview with the man who has run the Community Security Trust for last 10 years.