 Jan and Bill Mohat at the Suicide Prevention Education Alliance (SPEA) memorial walk, Cleveland, Ohio.
Blending cutting-edge research with real-life stories, REJECT is the first feature-length documentary driven by breakthrough science that demonstrates a chilling correlation between social rejection and physical pain. Studies show that this pain can affect the immune system, IQ and school performance, mental and physical health and even potentially lead to the perpetration of violent acts upon oneself or others. |
The film will track a range of experiences—from the seemingly mundane occurrence of getting left out of a ball tossing game to the tragedy of bullying that has led to school shootings and suicide. We will travel into a maximum-security prison with a psychiatrist who observed first hand the connection of rejection to violence among prisoners. We will get to know a family whose son committed suicide as a direct result of bullying, perhaps one of the most extreme forms of social rejection.
Our team is committed to producing the highest quality feature-length documentary on the subject of social rejection. The project has attracted some of the top thinkers on this topic, from international ostracism expert Kipling Williams to renowned youth violence expert James Garbarino to educator Vivian Paley, and many more. Rejection has been  examined in a myriad of ways, from poetry to clinical research, but never through such a visual, accessible medium as documentary film. The big question we will explore is: how can a civilized society begin to understand the terrible price that is paid for the physical pain of rejection? And what can we do to prevent its negative consequences? |