Film screening is virtual thank you

by Yvonne Teems
Staff Writer

After the scattered showers of applause subsided amid eager Athena audience members Sunday afternoon, this past year’s work of many viewers exploded on the screen in the form of Instant Muscles.

In the film, set in the early 1900s, a boy deals with peer torment by standing up to the bullies in a creative way.

Writer and director Mark Shogren said this shows how children deal with threats by using their imaginations, without their parents' help.

But he said the problem of the bully in society stems from a lack of communication between parents and children. This conflict can be seen, he said, between the father and his bullied son.

“The parent needs to give the kid confidence to tell them everything that happens,” he said.

Because society celebrates strength in men and beauty in women, parents hope their kids will fall into one of these categories in order to fit in, Shogren said. But he said he thinks parents need to adapt to individual kids because each has different strengths. The father in the film tells his son to fight the bullies, but Shogren said he thinks there are other ways to deal with the problem.

Ohio University Professor of Counselor Education Dr. Richard Hazler, author of Breaking the Cycle of Violence: Interventions for Bullying and Victimization, said there is more than one way for kids to deal with bullies. A father might tell his son to fight back because this method worked for him throughout his life, but this plan can actually work, Hazler said.

But he said there are other ways to deal with the problem such as telling someone, walking with other people or expanding a victim's social group.

Having a good relationship with one's parents is important, he said. But parents need to help their kids gain a sense of personal strength instead of a feeling of parental protection.

Hazler said bullying is defined by three characteristics: someone is hurt, one person has a distinct advantage over another and the bullying incident is repeated. What drives a bully is having a new source of power over someone else and not knowing how to use it.

This mode of thinking is controlled, however, by social learning. For example, when a 3-year-old child realizes no one will play with him if he hordes all of his toys, he then begins to share.

“Virtually all of us do those kinds of things,” Hazler said.

Producer of Instant Muscles, Vincente Cinque, a native of Caracas, Venezuela, said he noticed American culture divides people between losers and winners. Winners might bully a loser because the latter is not a part of the group, he said.

Cinque said while most short films do not have the time to resolve its problems, this film does.

Audience members saw these resolutions during the film's screening yesterday at The Athena. Cinque said the purpose of Sunday’s viewing was not only to show what is being done within the film school, but also to thank the members of Athens, Glouster, Trimble, Albany and Amesville communities for their help in the film's creation.

Cinque said many of the actors, like Karen Chan, are community members who work on several films per year.

“[The Athena viewing is] not just to show her the work that she did, but to say thank you for the work that she always does for us,” Cinque said.

Props like Model-T cars, location sites including a 150-year-old house and the acting talents of children and adults were all donated for free.

“We're fortunate that here, people are kind enough to give us their time or resources for very little or for free,” Shogren said.