The Hunting Ground (2015)

The Hunting Ground is the documentary that this country needs. Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick followed up The Invisible War with this look at rape in another one of America's revered institutions: universities.  It is a brutal look at rape on campus.  It is an epidemic that is widespread.  The same stories recur across the country and the message that is repeated at university after university is that they don't care. Universities are businesses and allegations of rape are bad public relations.  Gloria Steinem spoke at Johns Hopkins last year at the Foreign Affairs Symposium and she said something that was echoed by this film: sexual assault happens at all universities. The ones that report zero incidences are not safer, rather they are worse for covering it up.  The film features candid talking head interviews with survivors of sexual assault.  These are intertwined with statistics and infographics.  Some very innovative students filed Title IX complaints, and taught other students how to do the same.  It is not the original intention of Title IX, but this interpretation is a brilliant application of the law: survivors of sexual assault are deprived of equal and free access to education because the failure to adequately respond to sexual harassment creates a hostile learning environment.  Lady Gaga and Diane Warren teamed up for the song "Til It Happens to You" which bravely asks the viewer to step into the shoes of survivors and try to understand the immense suffering they go through.  This is an important documentary and there have rightfully been screenings at universities across the country.