The Hunting Ground (2015)

Excellent but underrated film

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

"The Hunting Ground" is a documentary about the widespread incidence of sexual assault on US college campuses which I, especially as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, found very moving as well as very enlightening.It shows how power differentials, between victims/survivors and school administrations, and a drive by administrations to preserve a school's image and reputation if at all possible, combine to enable sexual assault on college campuses nationwide.And it's about how the determination of two victims/survivors to change things for the better led to substantial intervention by the federal government to compel schools to begin taking the rights and needs of campus sexual assault victims/survivors seriously.Highly recommended.

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)Rating: 4.7/5 stars"The Hunting Ground" is one of ace documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick's (also behind the exceptionally shocking "The Invisible War") strongest works yet, with a powerful message that emphatically trumps minor technical deficiencies. It's a very important film to see for parents, students, faculties, and anyone else involved with academia. The documentary is a stark piece of survivors' advocacy and qualifies as activist filmmaking, so more power to it. You can read all the statistics you want, but there's no substitute for bearing visual witness - especially in such overwhelming numbers.This is a startling exposé of rape crimes on U.S. college campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on the students and their families. Weaving together archive footage and first-person testimonies, the film follows the lives of several university assault survivors as they attempt to pursue - despite incredible pushback, harassment, and traumatic noncooperation - both their education and justice.Dick's purpose is clear - he's unapologetically not concerned about being fair to both sides. But is that such a problem when no one has been fair to the victims in question? This is an unnerving expose of the proliferation of rape on college campuses across America, and the whole affair will make parents fear for the safety of their daughters (and in some cases, sons), and those whose kids have fortunately remained untouched by the decadence, would feel ashamed at the plight of other innocents affected by the blatant collusion and disregard displayed by the powers that could have easily done the right thing. It's not the numbers here you'll remember, but the stories - a montage of students relating how they called their parents, post-rape, is the saddest thing you'll see on screen this year. When and where your frustration and anger boil over while watching "The Hunting Ground" is an individual experience; one that will be different for everyone who sees it. But if you're not disgusted by the institutional apathy and unscrupulousness revealed in "The Hunting Ground", you may actually be a rapist or molester yourself.

To start, before I get to what was in the case I'd like to mention the science of lying. http://www.blifaloo.com/info/lies_eyes.php Where she keeps looking when she refers to remembering is the direction one would look if they were using their imagination. Except for when she looks to the opposite side where the light is. Every time she looks to the light she cries. Now She claimed she was drunk(Toxicology said...Lie), she said she was drugged(Toxicology said...Lie), she said in the film that she didn't know him and he was stalking her(photos of them dancing very closely said....lie), she said he was the only guy she slept with(DNA test said...Lie). She claimed she wasn't the type go home with guys she didn't know, but she did sleep with a man either before or after Winston the same night that it happened. So who has sex with a man who is not her boy friend and then goes out to a club with friends to drink, but is so far away from her friends that they don't know about an unknown man "stalking her?" Where were her friends? The bartender that she claimed to have try and help her was never found. She also later claimed that she was dancing and that a man hit her on the back of the head and dragged her to a taxi(This was after toxicology proved she was neither drugged or drunk.)On September 2, a full nine months after she identified Winston as the man who allegedly raped her, she tweeted during Florida State's game against Pitt: "Pitt is the perfect example of why I would never want to go to school in the north. #everyonesugly #FSUvsPITT"; and "Interception, f–k you Pitt." She claimed her therapist said it would help her by attending his games. Yet this don't sound like she was in visual sight of her "attacker". Yet no therapist came forward to this claim. She said her attacker was 5'8 240 with long hair the night it happened. Winston was 6'4 200 with short hair. She however did remember the color of his bed sheets and where his apartment was located according to one of her later accounts, which would have helped them not start an investigation 2 months late. Her lawyer due to having no evidence of rape declared in court that, "It had to be rape because my client would never have sex with a black man." Yet this film ignores all of this and plays it as if she is being truthful. The film crew was also caught editing Winston's wiki page to match their own claims. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the- hunting-ground-crew-caught-editing-wikipedia-to-make-facts-conform- to-film/article/2576792 This is a sham. This film talks about an important topic but uses falsehoods to make their points.

i saw it on my campus, and it was so compelling. Our campuses are letting down victims of sexual assault. The brave women who come forward are ostracized, blamed, and abused by their fellow students, the media, their universities, and trolls on the Internet. I am a UNC grad, and I was so proud of the women in the film.Fraternities are the nexus of a lot of campus problems. Until universities get a handle on them not much will change. If state supported universities did a better job of protecting their students instead of protecting their meal tickets the world would be a much better place.The sad fact is the people who hate this film are uncomfortable with the bad deeds of their alma maters have committed for money and recognition.