Dark Cloud Parent Guide

In 2009, a 12 year old Canadian named Amanda Todd started frequenting chat rooms as a way to meet people online. She was persuaded to show her breasts to one man who later blackmailed her and began circulating the photo online. Years of bullying and spiraling depression followed, resulting in Amanda’s suicide in 2012. Dark Cloud tells this story from the perspective of Carol Todd, Amanda’s mother and an advocate for victims of cyber bullying. The documentary also features interviews with experts and discussions of how the culture around bullying has changed in recent years.

As documentaries go, this one moves pretty quickly – anything under an hour is going to struggle to take a serious look at its subject matter, and that’s the biggest problem for Dark Cloud. Cyberbullying is a serious issue, and while the film acknowledges that, you don’t get much more than a surface level discussion. I doubt that represents the limits of the filmmakers’ knowledge or interest. I suspect this is what happens when you try to make a 45 minute documentary. It’s all about trade-offs: this movie is brief enough to show in a single class period but it’s too short to dig deeply in its subject.

In fact, Dark Cloud feels like it was designed for one of those school assemblies about bullying we all attended at some point. You know, the kind of thing where everyone sits down in the gym for an hour and a half, some very earnest people come and encourage everyone to be kinder, and on the way out you see some kid getting pushed into the bleachers anyway. These productions really play to empathy and emotion – two things unlikely to actually reach bullies. You certainly could show this documentary in school, since it is almost completely lacking in any objectionable content. The subject matter is serious, but it’s handled delicately.

Where I think this will be most helpful is in educating parents who grew up in a time before social media and are completely unfamiliar with the issue. Carol Todd’s story is certainly a wake-up call for anyone who is unaware of the world of cyber-bullying, and the film provides some good advice and resources for people who need to reach out. If this is an issue you care about (which you should) this short film is a good starting point. Just don’t expect some deep analysis or discussion. There just isn’t enough space to do anything other than deal with the broad strokes of the issue head on – no time to dig around the sides or shadows.