What Killed Kevin? Defining Workplace Bullying

Presenting herself as a former victim of bullying, filmmaker Beverly Peterson scrutinizes a 2010 tragedy in which Kevin Morrissey, managing editor at the Virginia Quarterly Review, fatally shot himself after an especially stressful period working at the University of Virginia–published magazine. Blame settled on Morrissey's boss, Ted Genoways (rangy and intense-looking enough to pass for the bad guy in an old Western). Rumors fanned by the dead man's sister, who hooked up with a grandstanding anti-bullying website, led to Genoways being accused of driving Morrissey to his death. But Peterson collects testimony that Morrissey and Genoways were longtime friends, and their falling-out was a gradual, complicated decline. Other factors may have included Kevin's unhappy childhood and the alienation he felt in a college town he did not especially like, as well as miscommunication about the publication's stability. Ultimately, whatever his management style, Genoways may have been a victim himself of witch-hunt hysteria. Included almost as a footnote is the potent charge that corporate culture and office politics breed abuse-prone environments. Viewers looking for the definitions and guidelines suggested in the film's subtitle may be disappointed, but this is an intriguing case study without easy answers that is sure to spur discussion. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)