Cynthia Lowen Speaker

CYNTHIA LOWEN FILMMAKER OF BULLY Cynthia Lowen is the co-filmmaker of Bully, a feature documentary following a “year in the life” of America’s bullying crisis, which she developed, produced, and wrote in partnership with Emmy and Sundance Award-winning director Lee Hirsch. Filmed over the course of the 2009-2010 school year, Bully opens a window onto the pained and often endangered lives of bullied kids, revealing a problem that transcends geographic, racial, ethnic, and economic borders. It documents the responses of teachers and administrators to aggressive behaviors that defy “kids will be kids” clichés, and it captures a growing movement among parents, youth, and educators to change how bullying is handled in schools, in communities, and in society as a whole. Following the film's premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, Bully was acquired by The Weinstein Company and released to wide acclaim in theaters nationwide in the spring of 2012. Lauded by reviewers, Bully has been dubbed “a lyrical work” by The New Yorker’s David Denby and “potent and provocative” by Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers. The film has garnered support from such prominent voices as Anderson Cooper, Ellen DeGeneres, Kelly Ripa, Meryl Streep, Katie Couric, Justin Bieber, Martha Stewart, Kathy Griffin, Tiki Barber, Governor Mike Huckabee, Kate Upton, and many others. Featured at several prominent summits on education and school climate, in April of 2012 Bully was screened at the White House where Senior Presidential Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced President Obama’s support of the Safe Schools Improvement Act, an important federal legislation designed to address bullying in American schools. Drawing from Bully’s success, Lowen and her team of filmmakers created The Bully Project Social Action Campaign, a collaborative effort in partnership with multiple organizations, foundations, brands, and corporate sponsors that aims to equip parents, kids, educators, and advocates with the tools to transform their communities. Partners include JPMorgan Chase & Co., Sears, The National Center for Learning Disabilities, Bing, the United Federation of Teachers, Autism Speaks, BBYO, Ashoka, and many others. This spring, The Bully Project announced the 1 Million Kids to See Bully campaign, which makes the film available to students in theaters, free of cost, with a wraparound educational program. The campaign will continue to expand through the 2012-2013 school year. Through her work on Bully, Lowen has lectured extensively on bullying and school climate, as well as the social impact of documentary films and the future of trans-media projects, speaking at The Open Society Foundations, the International Conference on Human Values, the Producers Guild of 313 Washington Street, Suite 225 | Newton, MA 02458 | Phone: 617-614-1600 | Fax: 617-965-6610 | www.apbspeakers.com LOWEN, CYNTHIA [PAGE 2] America, New York Women in Film and Television, Colorado College, the University of Northern Iowa, the Tribeca Film Festival’s Tribeca Talks series, and Silverdocs, in addition to numerous Q&A’s for groups such as the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the United Federation of Teachers, student groups, and many others. In addition to her work in film, Lowen is also an award-winning writer and winner of the prestigious Discovery Prize. Her writing has been selected for inclusion in Best New Poets 2008 and edited by Mark Strand, and she has been awarded several honors, including a seven-month fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts; the Campbell Corner Prize; and the Tin House/Summer Literary Seminars Kenya Prize, in addition to numerous residencies. Her work has been published in journals such as A Public Space, Boston Review, The Huffington Post, Indiewire, Inkwell, Provincetown Arts, and Tin House. Lowen is looking forward to the publication of two books this September: a companion to Bully titled BULLY: An Action Plan for Teachers and Parents to Combat the Bullying Crisis (Weinstein Books) and The Essential Guide to Bullying, Prevention and Intervention (Alpha), which she has co-authored with Cindy Miller, a school social worker, psychotherapist, educator, and parent consultant. Cynthia Lowen received her BA at Colorado College and her MFA in creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. TOPICS: The Essential Guide to Bullying, Prevention & Intervention The Power of Story: The Role of Trans-Media Projects in Disseminating a Message Bullying: It Happens Everywhere 313 Washington Street, Suite 225 | Newton, MA 02458 | Phone: 617-614-1600 | Fax: 617-965-6610 | www.apbspeakers.com .

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