Mental health amongst teens is a conversation that has been pushed into the spotlight in recent years. One filmmaker hopes to encourage the spread of this conversation through his work.

Butter is a film being released in theaters across the nation Friday. The film deals with many topics prevalent in society today, including bullying and mental health.

“There are always choices, there are always people to turn to, open up the lines of communication, you’re definitely not alone, and you know just really listen to each other ask questions, ask are you ok,” Executive producer of the film Julie Bram said. 

Bram hopes that teens, educators, and parents will become more comfortable with having open conversations about mental health after watching the movie.

“We wanted to make really sure with the movie that we weren’t romanticizing anything about those issues, and we partnered with the Jed Foundation, which is an anti-suicide in teens and adults organization,” she said. “They read over the script to make sure we weren’t romanticizing anything. And my brother actually changed a few things that they recommended.”

This article was revised on February 28th, 2022: Julie Bram was incorrectly quoted as having said that the Jed foundation helped write the script; the Jed foundation read over the script of Butter.