I AM JULIA is a short film that brings to light the subject of Bullying in schools.

“I am Julia… caught in the bully’s lair” is a powerful short film written and produced by the Colombian actress Marisol Carrere and directed by David Capurso. This central subject, bullying and cyberbullying is a constant topic of discussion in today’s media worldwide.

The film examines both the bullies and their prey; giving us a glimpse into their personal stories and an incident which questions school officials, and their accountability in the matter.

“My goal is to make a film based on true events that would touch a chord deep inside the spectator. I am also hopeful that our young people will be able to relate with the film’s characters and trust that it will start a conversation and instill the importance of how urgently a transformation is needed in our educational system, as well as, an awakening for some parents”, said Carrere.

After President Obama’s initiatives on March 2011, ground breaking laws began to be implemented, protecting students inside and outside of schools. “If there’s one goal of this conference, it’s to dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up. It’s not,” said Obama, who acknowledged that he was bullied as a child.

A poll of almost 1,000 11 to 16-year-olds, commissioned by the Anti-Bullying Alliance, reveals that 26% of youngsters say they have been verbally bullied in the last year. Of these, 79% said it had happened at school. Two thirds (66%) of those questioned said they had seen or heard this type of abuse in the last year. This issue is only intensified by the inescapable reach of the Internet, bullying has spun out of control.

It allegedly triggered the suicides of an alarming number of youngsters in recent years, which rocketed the bullying epidemic into the national spotlight. An epidemic that causes 160,000 children a day to stay home from school because they are afraid of being bullied, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

According to numbers published by the National Anti-Bullying And Cyberbullying Program for Kids and Teens, 1 out of 4 kids in the US has been a victim of bullying, adding to a shocking number of 13 million children annually.

But Carrere, besides doing her part to alerting everybody about this issue brings a solution with I am Julia: “I want young people to learn how to become more tolerant, because bullying does not end when we graduated from schools, it carries on into adulthood.”

I am Julia was shot on location at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center in New York’s Lower East Side. Original music was provided by Russ Spiegel, the band Folding Legs (formerly Otterclan) and Jay Emmanuel Morales.