BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE story of a troubled teenager named ‘Joy’ is one of deep sorrow and disaster portrayed in a film written and produced by two talented young men in St. Kitts and Nevis to highlight the growing issue of bullying in school.
The story, ‘Tears of Joy’, is a short film by Creative Concepts/Tru Capo Productions (St. Kitts-Nevis) depicting a schoolgirl's battle with bullying, to which many of our children fall victims.
Summary of the short-film
The first scene of this riveting short-film depicts a young girl running while weeping, not tears of joy, but sorrow and pain. As the film progresses, Neila Jones, who plays ‘Joy’, arrives at school every day but is being bullied by another student, Khaila Morton, who plays the role of ‘Samantha’.
During Joy’s attendance at school, Samantha would regularly tarnish her name and verbally degrade her in the classroom and also out of it.
“You so fat you smelling like left over sardine,” Samantha tells Joy during a class confrontation.
If verbal abuse was not enough, Samantha, with the help of her crew, decided to take the physical approach to the distraught teenager. She also included blackmail, nudity and even a physical toilet prank.
Joy finally found the courage and decided to report Samantha and her classmates to the principal, who then investigated the matter and decided to call the students’ parents for meeting.
The meeting, however, was scheduled for the following week which didn’t help the existing situation. Even during the time of the scheduled meeting the attacks were more frequent and worst.
But the story took a different spin as viewers were given a firsthand look at the life of Samantha. Even as a bully, Samantha had her fair share of troubles at home with her alcoholic father who regularly rejected her.
Samantha’s father, on receipt of the news of his needed presence at the meeting confronts her, saying: “You are always trouble girl”, and blamed by her for killing her mother at birth.
Hearing the dreadful remarks from her father, Samantha is then moved to anger and plans to seek revenge through Joy for what happened. But the revenge would turn into a messy classroom exchange of words.
A nude photograph of Joy, taken by Samantha during a previous attack, was circulated throughout the school. Joy then confronts Samantha who tells her to “disappear”, adding that she was “no longer needed”.
With the entire trauma Joy faced during her final days on earth, she decided to end her life in order to end the pain.
The writer’s view
According to the writer, James Galloway, the snippet of Samantha’s life was a very important part to him, because he wanted to show that even as a bully, her anger and rage stemmed from her own personal struggles.
“No child is born a monster, knowing to hate, being angry and none of that. They are situations that we are put that make us out to be that way, because we are sometimes products of our environment. Not all of us are skilled to cope with it; so that was the message about Samantha,” Galloway explained.
Galloway added that Samantha’s behaviour also stemmed from the fact that because she was always resented by her father, who blamed her for taking the life of someone he loved, her basic need for love was absent.
In contrast to Joy, Samantha’s hate for her, according to Galloway, stemmed from the fact that her prey had everything she did not possess…mother, attention and love in the home.
He added that the bullying was an element of jealousy and insecurity.
SKNVibes Entertainment: “The movie concluded with Joy taking her own life due to the trauma she faced, because this film is highlighting bullying in school. Why not an outcome of hope?”
Writer: “We could have but that was one of the things we discussed. When I wrote it I asked Capo: ‘Boy you think we should do it?’ And even the sponsors wanted us to change the ending and I said no, because we taking away what the film is.”
Galloway further explained that the film was made to create ‘anger’ in its viewers so that they could have a say in this growing phenomenon.
“Hope is one thing! It’s a feeling, it can get you through, but actions are what solve problems, and the whole goal was to stir people into action,” the writer said.
