DURHAM, N.H. - A film screening and discussion at the University of New Hampshire takes on the widespread and growing issue of bullying Wednesday, April 10, 2013. A free screening of the documentary film "Bully: The Movie" will be followed by an audience discussion of bullying led by a panel of UNH experts. The event, sponsored by UNH Cooperative Extension, the departments of education and social work, and the Browne Center, is at 6:30 p.m. in Theatre II of the Memorial Union Building at UNH.

"Bully" is the first documentary to show the wide-ranging effects of bullying on its victims, perpetrators, and witnesses. The film opens on the first day of school, a day filled with anxiety for the more than 13 million kids who will be bullied this year in the U.S. From the first day of school through the last, the character-driven "Bully" explores the lives of a few people touched by bullying.

"Every school in the U.S. is grappling with bullying -- each day more than 160,000 kids across the country are absent because they're afraid of being bullied -- but for many districts it's just one more problem that gets swept under the rug," say the film's producers, Cynthia Lowen and Lee Hirsch (who also directed).

"We're pleased to share this important film with the UNH and Seacoast community, and we hope to have students and students as well as community members join us," says Malcolm Smith, youth and family education and policy specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension and extension associate professor in the family studies department.

Smith, a bullying expert who is co-author and project director of the "Courage to Care" project through Cooperative Extension, will moderate an audience discussion after the screening. Courage to Care co-creators Rick Alleva, extension field specialist in positive learning environments for youth, and Jeff Frigon, youth programs support at the Browne Center, will join him on the panel, as well as faculty from education and social work.

To learn more about Courage to Care, a curriculum for middle school students designed to increase empathy and care for others and reduce bullying and meanness, go to www.courage2care.com.

To learn more about "Bully: The Movie," go to www.thebullyproject.com.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students.

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