The film “White Rabbit” will hit VOD and movie theaters in multiple cities on February 13, 2015.  Directed by Tim McCann, it tackles the subjects of bullying and gun violence head-on, and humanizes the type of tragedy we hear/read about on a daily basis in this country.  The film contains riveting performances from Nick Krause (“The Descendents”) and Britt Robertson (“Under the Dome”) and delivers a powerful emotional punch.  More information about the film’s release can be found here.

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence was able to catch up with McCann and ask him some questions about the film.  The interview follows:

With “White Rabbit,” you’ve waded into two topics—gun violence and bullying—that are not easy subject matter.  What made you want to approach these topics?

There’s also mental illness.  But it’s the human story that makes it all work—the characters, the way the story turns, the unexpected changes in behavior.  This was all in Anthony Di Pietro’s screenplay, which Robert Yocum (producer) sent to me years ago.  These are obviously some of the critical issues of our time, but me and Shaun (Sanghani, Producer) wanted to make sure the social-political aspects of the film were fundamentally supported by the human story, otherwise they might appear demagogic.

You seem to make a conscious decision in the film to portray Harlon as a sympathetic character, despite the fact that he ultimately contemplates revenge through a mass shooting. Were you trying to move us beyond a debate about good/evil and into real discussion about how children reach this terrible state of mind?

Most of us live in that gray area where ambition, insecurity, envy, anxiety, guilt, all that stuff impacts our behavior, and we are a mix of good and bad.  Some of us can become fully realized as good or evil, but nobody starts out that way, especially no child.  To me there is nothing more boring than the “dumbing down” of the human being in storytelling—this phrase is a movie term, and I guess it’s a lazy way of stoking an emotional response, but the inclination has infected the culture, and it’s led to us diminishing thought and replacing it with knee-jerk response.   In “White Rabbit,” Harlon ends up being pretty damn evil.  I think it’s much more interesting if we are sympathetic to a character, emotionally informed of their state of mind, so that when we see them crossing over, we understand, realize, dread what is happening—but we know what is happening, because we have taken this journey with them.  And everybody does this in some way or another.  Sometimes we just go too far in a situation.  Or sometimes we are conscious of what is happening and can deal with it in a healthy way.

Harlon’s father takes ends up taking bold measures to address the problems afflicting the family in the film.  He deals with his substance abuse by turning to the church, getting clean, and being born again.  He prepares to meet with administrators at his son’s school to deal with Harlon’s failing grades.  He orders Harlon to throw out his magazines to remove bad influences.  But, in all this action, he never thinks to remove the loaded guns he keeps laying all over the house, even when it becomes clear Harlon is dealing with mental health issues. Were you making a commentary here on the blind faith some Americans seem to have in guns; where they almost becoming incapable of seeing the inherent risks they present?

I suppose the ultimate sin in the film is neglect.  It really raises the question as to whether the story would have ended like it did if there had been more communication and common sense.   With guns, I understand that nobody likes being told what to do and how to live their lives, but sometimes we react defensively and it ends up hurting us more than anybody else.  It’s so important that we don’t demagogue issues we care about—because that cuts off thought and learning and common sense.  We go into denial and become pawns instead of thinking human beings.

I found the selection of guns in the film interesting.  Many directors, I think, would have taken the sensational route and portrayed Harlon’s family with handguns and assault weapons; weapons we commonly associate with mass shootings.  You, however, chose not to use semiautomatic weapons in the film, instead opting for breech-loaded long guns suited for hunting and basic home defense. Why?

The legal gun owners I know are some of the kindest, most reasonable, careful friends I have.  Despite this, I know of at least one awful, life-changing tragedy that has happened, in part due to having a gun in the house.  I think if, in the film, we had focused on the spectacle of a semiautomatic weapon, it would have created an exotic distance.

There’s a great moment in the film when Julie and Harlon first get together and she asks him, “What do you do for fun in this town?”  And, of course, he has only one answer:  Shoot stuff.

And he shows her how to shoot a gun.  And it’s fun.  If it wasn’t fun, it wouldn’t be so popular.

You made a decision to depict graphic violence during the school shooting sequence in the film.  Why?

Because that is where the emotional idea of the film comes into focus for the audience.  The shooting is brutal and unsettling, but it’s as dreamlike as it is violent.  This is where the tragedy of this outsider kid, who has been crushed and never recovered, becomes a monster, and where we try and put together what happened—where we are forced to appreciate the tragedy of it.  This is the opposite of glorifying violence.

What larger symbolism do you see in the white rabbit that Harlon is forced to kill by his father in the beginning of the film?  What does this moment represent to Harlon?  It’s interesting that Harlon first contemplates killing immediately after this hunt, when he points his firearm at his brother back at the house.

Hunting is unsettling to Harlon, because he’s killing.  But there’s something else.  In that one moment, in a certain way, he’s had more impact than he’s ever had on the world.  And that moment stays with him.  Symbolically, for the story, the rabbit is apparently harmless.  But after killing it, Harlon is haunted by the rabbit.  So the rabbit actually does have power, even if it’s only to cast traumatic remorse on a child hunter—which ends up helping to destroy that person as an adolescent.  Likewise, Harlon as a teenager is also harmless.  He is knocked around, bullied, made fun of—he’s an outsider… An idea of the film is that even the most helpless among us can be dangerous.

What message do you ultimately hope to convey with the film concerning guns and gun violence?

Although Harlon’s life is a complex, perfect storm—bullying, a mental disorder that aggravates his alienation, the difficulties of adolescence, frustrated parents—all of these pressures that he is navigating for years; it really comes down to one simple thing.  There is an unsecured gun in the house when he reaches his boiling point.  It is never the intention for something like this to happen, but it happens—to people like us.