. >> perkins boy, 11 years old, believed to have been desperate enough to take his own life. >> this is the official trailer for a documentary movie called "bully." it was directed by lee hirsch. the production company behind it is winestein company. currently the eeaa has given this movie an r rating. >> why? >> their reasoning for the r rating is language and the scene of violence. it follows five students and their families over the course of one entire school year. so everything that you're seeing, it's not like it's hollywood violence. these are the real images of the lives of people. >> the people that really should be seeing it, the kids in school, aren't going to be able to see it because it's r rated. >> here is what happened on february 3rd lee hirsch and winestein company unsuccessfully appealed the r rating. but one teenager in michigan, a 17 yearly, decided to start sending a petition to change.org to try to get the rating of this movie changed. so far she's already gotten over 150,000 signatures. >> i'm sure it's going to be a process to get that rating change but i'm r

. >> the perkins boy just len years old desperate enough to take his own life. >> they trangle me and take things from me. >>> and that is enough. >> he's not safe on the bus. >> i have been on the bus. they are good as gold. >> the last boy is alex lib yenow 15 years old and he and his parents join us from oklahoma city . here in the studio film maker of bully. lee is with me. thank you for being here . jackie and philip from oklahoma city thank you for joining us. lee, i want to begin with you. this was not a professional project that you wanted to do artistically. you were a victim of bullies when you grew up. and tell us what happened to you and why the project was so personal. >> my bullying was violent and physical. and it was sort of elementary and middle school and i couldn't get home without getting beaten up . kids would way wait for me and my dad fought in world war ii. he had a attitude of toughen up. you will get there it and kids will be kids . i want to give a voice to the family and to these kids so there would not be argument about is bullying bad and rite of passage.

. >> some kids told him go hang himself, ayn i think those words-- >> a tragic situation, a perkins boyt 11 years old believed to have been desperate enough to take his own life. >> punch me, strangle me, take things from me. >> and he's not safe on that bus, i've been on that bus, they are just-- >> the last boy you saw is a boy named alex and he's now 15 years old and he and his parents, jackie and phillip join us from oklahoma city and here in the studio, a film maker, lee hirsh is with me. thank you for being here. >> and jackie from oklahoma city, thank you so much for joining us as well. and i want to begin with you, this was not just some professional project you wanted to do artistically, you were a victim. >> yes. >> of bullies when you were growing up. tell us what happened and why this is so personal. >> my bullying was very violent and physical. it was sort of elementary and middle school. i couldn't get home without getting beaten up and kids would wait for me. my dad fought in world war ii and he had an attitude. a good father, but he said toughen up, you'll get through it

. >> a perkins boy believed to have been desperate enough to take his own life. >> here what we get iswrong, we didn't do anything. everything is fine. >> punch me, strangle me. take things from me. sit on me. >> give it to him. >> he's not safe on that bus. >> i've been on that bus. they are just as good as gold. >> such a powerful clip from the r-rated film bully. unfortunately, that rating will keep kids from seeing it. now, activists, lawmakers and celebrity, meryl streep, johnny depp, they want the motion picture association of america to make this film pg-13. but will that happen before the film opens nationally on march 30th? bully filmmaker lee hirsch is here in studio with me. great to have you here. congratulations on the process and the product that you've put out there. obviously the plim is gfilm it lot of attention because of the rating it was getting. just seeing that clip, the boy featured, one of the children featured, the abuse that he suffers is infuriating. you krur self-admit you were bullied as a kid. as a filmmaker, did you ever want to jump in there and save thi

. >> a perkins boy, just 11 years old, believed to have been desperate enough to take his own life. > movie, butler was bullied herself when she came out as a lesbian in middle school. >> they taunted me and bullied me and harassed me almost every day. it got to the point where i just didn't want to go to school anymore. and eventually, i had my hand slammed in my locker, and they broke my finger. >> reporter: the mpaa says their hands are tied since an appeals board recently upheld the rating of the movie, but they say kids can still see it. in a statement they say, "unfortunately, there is a misconception about the r rating of this film limiting the audience to adults. this is not true. in fact, many other r-rated movies on important topics such as schindler's list have been screened in schools and viewed by children accompanied by their parents." >> it's a totally different experience to have a 13-year-old go to the movies with their parents or to have a 13-year-old go to the movies with their four best friends and then talk about the movie afterwards. >> okay. they say it's r beca

. >> a perkins boy, just 11 years old, believed to have been desperate enough to take his own life. >takes an up close look at life for the millions of kids that struggle with bullying daily. the movie is released today. michelle turner, a battle broke out with the weinstein and the motion picture industry? >> it's kind of a battle for a good cause, fred. this is a documentary about a very important issue in america today. but the film's rating has evolved as it makes its way into theaters. "bully" follows several students throughout the year as they struggle with the devastating effects of bullying. this was given to the motion picture with an "r" rating. this means that nobody could see this without an adult. this had those at weinstein, the prouder, up in arms which means that teenagers won't even have a chance to see it. now, a petition was put together in hopes of changing the rating to pg-13. it was signed by 14,000 people. the weinstein company has decided to release the movie as unrated. what does that mean? it means that teens will be able to see the film, but now "bully" may

. >> a perkins boy, just 11 years old. >> the movie is called "bully" a documentary that tracks the livestudents, two of whom killed themselves after being bullied, including 11-year-old ty field. the documentary's producer harvey weinstein says it's a movie every teenager, teacher, principal, should watch. >> i like them to be activists and stop this, and we can stop it. we can stop it on the school level. if we stop it there. we'll stop it everywhere. >> reporter: but many teens may not be able to see the move, because the motion picture soeshs of america has given the movie an "r" rating. more than 300,000 people have signed an online petition to get the ratings changed to pg-13. for the first time, former senator chris dodd, now the chairman and ceo of the motion picture association, and weinstein sat down together in the same room with cnn to discuss the issue. >> it's not a qualitative judgment. it's based on content, what language, drugs, sexual. it was designed by parents for parents. to give them some guidance, so they have some idea. >> reporter: the "f" word is used in the movi

. >>> perkins boy just 11 years old believed to have been desperate enough to take his own life. >> veryo watch that even 30 seconds of the trailer the film is getting attention because of its r rating a high school junior in katy butler argued those who need to see the movie the most would not be able to. the movement earned support of 20 members of congress, numerous celebrities and katie's petition received more than 300,000 signatures, thank you for coming in we do appreciate it. >> thank you so much for having me. >> you are a junior in high school right now from michigan, but you really took an interest in this, this documentary, doesn't portray your story yourself, but you took a personal interest because you were bullied yourself, throughout school as well tell us a little bit about that. >> yes, well, i started this petition on change.org to change the rating, i love the movie bullied because when i was in middle school i came out as a lesbian to my school not a lot of people liked that so they bullied me called me names pushed me into walls, and one day they ended up slamming m

pretty rough stuff without falling to pieces. ♪ ♪ >> perkins made his name and fortune in venture capitalism, which he chronicles in his memoir, "valley boyion of tom perkins." it is a candid account of his life, his second marriage to romance novelist danielle steel, a manslaughter conviction in a boating accident in france, and the deals that made him so wealthy, starting with the first biotech company, genentech, here in san francisco. he and his partners launched genentech in 1976 with nothing more than a checkbook and an idea. >> the idea was to trick nature into letting us make something that didn't exist in nature -- in particular, human insulin. >> genentech's success led to new ways of treating everything from diabetes to dwarfism, and to getting rich. kleiner perkins' initial investment of $250,000 soared 800-fold to $200 million. >> that's what venture capitalists are created to do, and you can blame converting the orchards of silicon valley into parking lots partly on me and partly on genentech, because we proved that this kind of high-risk, high-tech venture capital could be an enormous home run, and everybody wanted to get i

it may be the first day of spring but boy, mother nature has brought us a little change from yesterday. tony perkinst it j it is rather summer-like out there this morning. this is kind of an indication of how this year is going during the winter, we've had spring. today, the first day of spring, it is rather summer-like. wow! >> ooh, did you hear that? >> we just had -- >> everything kind of went black. >> that is some lightning and thunder. >> nerves are rattling along with our tv monitors in the studio. >> and our teeth. >> a little ominous here. we are getting some strong thunderstorm activity occurring as we speak. >> out of precautions, we've tape the mast down. >> the same with melanie alnwick out at the tidal basin. they have giant tv antennas. >> let me show you hd radar. we'll show you what is going on as we do continue to see some thunderstorms moving through the area. you can see the lightning flashes there. this is showing in the district just rain but we just heard a huge rumble of thunder and i suspect there was lightning with that. you saw the hit that we took. up to our north around