Metro Detroit Filmmaker's Jarring Look at Bullying Opens Friday: Watch Trailers

Amy Weber wrote and directed “A Girl Like Her,” a film about bullying that opens nationally on Friday, March 27. It was filmed primarily at Birmingham’s Seaholm High School. (Screenshot via the Radish Creative Group)

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Shot primarily Birmingham’s Seaholm High School in 2012, metro Detroit filmmaker Amy S. Weber’s new film, “A Girl Like Her,” shines a light on what has become a nightmarish reality for many teens.

“Seriously, Jessica,” Avery Keller, the leader of a cruel clique, says in one segment, “if you disappeared, the world would be a better place. Just go end yourself.”

Originally titled “The Bully Chronicles,” the PG-13 film aimed at teens opens nationwide Friday.

Find a theater showing “A Girl Like Her.”

Weber, who wrote the script for the movie released by her company, the Radish Creative Group of Royal Oak, uses techniques that make the film appear like a real-life documentary, the Detroit Free Press said. It includes social media clips and footage shot by the camera crew that is part of the cast and plays a key role in the plot.

Here’s the synopsis:

“Sophomore year has been a nightmare for Jessica Burns. Relentlessly harassed by her former friend Avery Keller, Jessica doesn’t know what she did to deserve the abuse from one of South Brookdale High’s most popular and beautiful students. But when a shocking event changes both of their lives, a documentary film crew, a hidden digital camera, and the attention of a reeling community begin to reveal the powerful truth about ‘A Girl Like Her.’ ”

Hunter King of “The Young and the Restless” plays Avery, and Lexi Ainsworth, formerly of “General Hospital,” plays Jessica.

The film is sympathetic to Jessica, but doesn’t demonize Avery. Instead, it attempts to look at the turns in Avery’s life that made her angry and hurtful toward others.

Weber, who has made dozens of educational films through the Radish Creative Group, used a crowd-funding campaign to raise $25,000. She told the Free Press she decided to produce the film as an independent venture because she thought she would have a hard time selling it to big studios.

“They know how to market comedy to teens,” Weber said. “This is too real and too serious, and it goes a little bit over their heads.”

Much of the dialogue in the film is improvisational to lend authenticity, Weber said.

“And because this was inspired by so many real stories, I wanted to be as genuine as possible,” Weber said.

Real-Life Inspiration

Weber said the film is “really about the youth experience today and what’s happening and the relationship between two former friends and what unravels around them when this experience happens.”

Weber said part of the inspiration for the film is her own experience as someone who was bullied as a child, but also as someone who turned the tables and became the bully in some of her later childhood friendships

In addition to her own childhood experiences, she said she was motivated in part by a 2011 controversy involving former Troy mayor Janice Daniels, who was recalled from office after posting an anti-gay comment on Facebook, she told the Free Press

Weber attended a city council meeting with her wife and two daughters, speaking publicly about the differences in modern families.

“We talk every day about different families and different types of people, and teaching respect and kindness,” she said at the time. “That is the heart that beats in our home. It’s about being kind, about choosing love over everything.”

Though “A Girl Like Her” is about teen bullying, the message about treating one another with kindness is universal, Weber said.

“As someone who believes we can overcome this, we have to go into those uncomfortable places to get to the heart of the subject,” she says.

Watch the official trailers below.