“The Hunting Ground” is an extraordinarily powerful and searing look at the epidemic of sexual assault on campuses across this country. College is supposed to be the first step towards adulthood for young women, a safe space where they can learn to develop as a person. But it turns out, according to filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering (“The Invisible War”), that colleges are a predatory hunting ground for sexual assaulters. At every turn, these young women are dismissed by the institutions that are supposed to protect them. Schools are worried more about money from alumni and big sports programs that the actual students on campus who are there to learn.
The heroines of the film, Andrea Pino and Annie Clark, were both sexually assaulted as students and have started going around the country talking to other survivors, instructing them on how to use Title IX to push schools to punish the assaulters. The villains of the film are the college and university presidents who ignore this epidemic on their campuses in favor of the bottom line. I don’t know how they sleep at night. The film also has the first interview with the woman who was sexually assaulted by Jameis Winston, the football player who will most likely be drafted #1 in the upcoming NFL draft. The fact that he is going to get millions of dollars and will be treated like a king makes my head want to explode.
Sexual assault against women is an epidemic. Hopefully this movie will jumpstart a conversation that is most needed and get these women the justice they seek in the courts and at the schools.
Inkoo also has a review of the film over at TheWrap.
