The Hunting Ground (2015)

When reading the reviews for this film, a lot of the problems our society is facing today become obvious. There is a lot of victim shaming and people citing these girls as liars or attention whores. This could not be further from the truth. To dismiss these women for having the courage to say what happened to them is despicable. Rape culture is alive and well in this country, and there is no excuse for it. Victims should not be asked what they were wearing or what they had to drink. How is any of this relevant to the fact that they were assaulted? Anyone who points the finger at a victim is deplorable. Watch this movie and stand with these women. They deserve our support.

The Hunting Ground is a really good documentary, that reveals an epidemic in America, one that is still argued about and ignored. The film is often powerful, often real, and often beyond belief. The Hunting Ground is good, but not great because it tells a crucial and relevant story, it handles its subject matter respectfully and powerfully, but it contains a few plot lines that feel detached from the story being told. That being said the film is still worth watching, especially if you're about to enter college, or have children about to enter college.The Hunting Ground tells the important story of how college's around the country are participating in an unbelievable rape culture in order to keep their images clean. The film begins with, and mostly follows Andrea Pino and Annie Clark on their journey to fight rape culture. The film is powerful, and at times scary because it often shows examples of this, that only help to showcase its message, and put the audience in perspective of what we allow to happen right under our noses.The film uses many interviews, which are at times hard to watch, but are also important for understanding the problem director, Kirby Dick, is trying to show. The film's tone is one that is tense, and unsettling, sometimes even feeling like a horror film with its use of music. The film also uses humor to help show the ignorance of our culture, for instance there is a moment in the film when a large group of college men gather together chanting "no means yes, yes means anal!" Many colleges will probably detest this film, as right or wrong the film portrays colleges as the main antagonist, however there is factual basis for why they do this.The film does have a few flaws, such as it's bias being more obvious or present than it should be. By that I mean the film would have been more powerful, and more engrossing if the audience were shown that the colleges have a reason for being the way they are, they aren't evil organizations. Also some of the interviews, as powerful and relevant as they may be, feel detached from the story of Andrea and Annie, which makes the story seem a little too unfocused. Because of this I also found myself occasionally wondering where the film was going, and when it would end.In the end Kirby's reasons for having these flaws is understandable, as he's trying to cover a topic too large for one film, especially a film that is only an hour and a half. The stories and interviews in this film are powerful, and the film ambitiously attacks a cultural epidemic that does need to be changed. Dick's message comes at a time when society is even more unstable, and changing hopefully lots of people see movies like this and are inspired to act.

This is a shocking expose of how, for decades, colleges have ignored sexual assaults of their students. If the true number of rapes on campus were known, the school would suffer tremendous financial repercussions. For starters, who wants to send their daughter to a college with high rape rate. Then the school wants to protect the student athletes from responsibility to keep the lucrative sports programs successful, and finally, they need to keep the fraternity system going so need to ignore rapes there. It turns out that all colleges have a high rape rates, the stats are just falsified. About 100,000 college students will be sexually assaulted this coming school year if things don't change. It's also the story of two very brave young women who are changing things. After their sexual assault complaints were ignored by the University of North Carolina, they dedicate themselves to giving victims / survivors at colleges throughout country a voice. That voice is the filing of Title IX complaints. First they file their own, and then they go on the road, helping students at colleges around the country file their own Title IX complaints. Without the assistance of lawyers, these 20 year old young women are really helping change the whole system. Since all the colleges apparently care about is finances, this turns out to be brilliant because the penalty if the college is found responsible is the loss of its federal funding. Now almost 100 colleges are under investigation by the Department of Education for violations of Title IX and thanks to pressure from these same women the Department of Education has released the list of the colleges under investigation. Rape victims are suddenly a lot more important to colleges. These young women are doing great, important work even as they are being re-traumatized by repeatedly having to hear other victims stories, not to mention the threats they have to repeatedly endure. There were at least two moments in the film where I had goose bumps because of what was being presented, which I can't say happens in every documentary, so it was very riveting as well.

It would be in my school's best interest if the accusations against Jameis Winston were compelling. However, a detailed review of the evidence (also completed by Ex-Florida Supreme Court Judge Harding in FSU's Code of Conduct hearing) is not convincing of any crime. It does not even approach "by a preponderance of the evidence" (51%+) in my assessment. The documentary examines a very real issue in the USA - sexual assault. However, college campuses are not any more of a "hunting ground" than the rest of America according to government provided statistics. In fairness, these statistics are difficult to pin down.In a well done documentary, pertinent details are provided and a relatively full context is represented. Perhaps by trying to appeal too much to emotion and playing loose with facts & accuracy, this "documentary" fails badly. It blatantly misinforms at least with regard to the Winston case.For those not familiar with the body of evidence, I will provide some highlights. The accuser, EK, gave two different accounts of how she ended up with Jameis at his place. 1) Drugged (but by a short Latin looking guy) and 2) Hit over the head. Both of these have been given in testimony (the second one by her friend to the police as that is what EK had told her friend). Examinations and toxicology reports indicated no drugs and no head trauma. In point of fact, EK was able to apparently ride on the back of JW's scooter for some distance, speak clearly when being examined (she was pressed to go get checked by her friends) and make repeated texts to friends (including asking for answers to a test the next day). The physical evidence (light knee marks) confirms the account of JW and his two eye witnesses - consensual oral sex. Her own friends confirm that Winston did not provide any shots (the presumed vehicle for the drugs... that did not exist), the deceitful hit-on-the-head story and her ability to go willingly into a taxi-cab. In my view, the documentary should have offered these facts rather than just playing dramatic music and focusing on her bias narrative. These facts certainly have factored into the TPD/D.A.'s decision not to pursue criminal charges, the ratification of this decision at the State law enforcement level and the school's COC hearing.The Tallahassee Police Department actually did investigate this promptly but could have done more sooner. In fairness, once they were told she had been hit on the head (and it clearly wasn't the case) then drugged (which seemed unlikely - then backed up by two separate "negative" toxicology reports) they were right to be skeptical of her. Then she did not cooperate for many months. The Xmas holiday season pulled her (and all students) away from the school for many weeks after the encounter which also logistically did nobody any favors.On a side note, the accuser's lawyer is a UF grad (frustratingly so for the alumni of UF Law) and she is not distinguishing herself in her approach/strategy to bringing charges... nor in her accuracy of statements.I fear that specific case - and with a civil trial forthcoming which will expose these inconsistencies more clearly - will ultimately hinder the overall message of the others in the film (who may or may not have legitimate sexual assault stories).