I am currently in my last stretch of college at the University of Texas. I don’t think I’ve had the “traditional” college experience. I don’t go out with friends to a bar on a Friday night. I haven’t been to a single party or sporting event. I don’t drink. I’m not in a fraternity. My life is pretty laser focused on film in so many different ways because that is what I enjoy. Due to that, I stay pretty removed from a lot of the goings on around campus. That doesn’t mean I don’t hear about it. Just the other day in class, we were having a group discussion about travel which transitioned into many girls talking about the precautions they take to avoid sexual assault, both traveling and just day-to-day life. Though they were speaking in a matter of fact tone, it made me really depressed that this was something these women just had to accept as something they have to do. No one should have to keep their head on a constant swivel of fear.
Unfortunately, campus rape is a massive problem, which director Kirby Dick brings to light in his documentary The Hunting Ground. Dick’s previous film, The Invisible War, highlighted sexual assault in the military. The two take on very similar structures, following women who are survivors of this horrendous crime fighting for justice and awareness interspersed with interviews of a multitude of victims. Our two principals are Andrea Pino and Annie Clark, both former students of University of North Carolina who were raped and ignored by the administration when they reported their assaults. Since then, both have been working to file a Title IX lawsuit against the college and helping survivors all around the country to do the same thing for their schools.
College administrations are Dick’s primary target, as they are constantly under reporting the amount of sexual assaults that actually occur and take little to no action against the perpetrators. Some of the statistics are startling, such as one college in a decade had over 200 reports and zero expulsions but had over 180 expulsions for cheating and other honor code violations. There’s also the notion student athletes, who bring in millions of dollars to their respective schools, commit nearly one in five of the sexual assaults but routinely are punished (if they are punished at all) after their time playing is concluded. Each new piece of information makes you sick to your stomach. It makes you want to go out and sign petitions, march in protest, and do whatever you can to make this issue known.
The Hunting Ground is unashamedly a piece of advocacy. Normally, this would really bother me in a documentary. Propaganda often rubs me the wrong way. However, here, because the many subjects have been institutionally silenced, all you really want is for their voices and their stories to be heard. It may not be the best way to structure a documentary, but it is an effective one. You dread each new face that comes up, as you just want the long parade of people to end. You almost don’t want to believe all of these people have been hurt.
One area I wish the film had gone a little more in depth into is male survivors, because this is a sub-sect of people never talked about within a topic no one wants to discuss already. Three men come forward with their experiences and are basically crammed into two minutes of the movie. The Invisible War, if my memory serves, faced the same issue. I am sure it is partly because more men don’t want to come forward for fear of massive scrutiny, as there is still a large percentage of people who think men could not possibly be raped, but I think it is a little unfair they are not given nearly the amount of time they could be. At least let them have ten minutes. Yes, women make up the overwhelming majority of cases, but that doesn’t mean men shouldn’t be taken as seriously.
The Hunting Ground is not a perfectly put together documentary. It leans entirely to one side without much, if any, talk from the other side, and it in no way tries to make any of its points in any other way than bluntly. That doesn’t mean it’s not an important movie every single person should see. You need to see footage of a group of frat pledges standing outside a freshman girls’ dorm chanting, “No means yes! Yes means anal!” It is a horrifying display, and one sure to make you furious. Even if the film has issues, you just want to applaud all of these people for coming forward with their stories and shedding light on an issue that needs to be addressed. Kirby Dick and the entire filmmaking team could have made their points a bit more gracefully, but they are still important.
