"The Hunting Ground," the new documentary out Friday from Kirby Dick ("The Invisible War," "This Film Is Not Yet Rated") was one of the buzziest films at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The movie takes on the epidemic of rape on college campuses and the systematic institutional coverups that have discouraged students from reporting and derailed their lives in the aftermath. The Post spoke with Dick and producer Amy Ziering about the film before its release.
Post: Your last film, "The Invisible War," was about sexual assault in the military. Were you surprised to find so many similarities in the university system?
Kirby Dick: Yeah, that was what was so shocking about this situation. The problem was as severe in higher education as it was in the military. You have the perfect storm here: These are serial offenders just picking someone to assault. After an assault, they feel so entitled at these colleges, and people are so unwilling to hold them accountable in any way. And the schools — it's to their benefit to not investigate, or to cover it up, because their reputation is so important.
The activist movement on campuses has become more vocal, organized and visible recently. To what do you attribute that change?
Amy Ziering: A couple of things. Social media has allowed survivors to communicate. That's unprecedented historically. Trauma survivors tend to self-isolate, but now you can isolate and still know you have someplace where you can find information and connect with other survivors. That's radically different. I think it's really helped fuel the movement. And the president speaking out about this issue — that's never happened before, so it's become more [a] part of the cultural discussion.
KD: I don't think we should assume, though, [that] because there's more discussion that change is complete, by any means. There's been a lot of response against the survivors that was just like what the activists were fighting against 40 years ago.
AZ: A survivor we interviewed went to Dartmouth in the 1990s and in her words, it's like "Groundhog Day" — she saw the stories in the press like history repeating itself.
Did universities attempt to stop you making this film?
AZ: They didn't find out. We tend to make our films discreetly. We don't show anyone any cuts early. Some schools knew we were making a film, but there wasn't much or any detail given, so there wasn't real pushback. We obviously gave quite a few schools the opportunity to respond, and for the most part they either didn't respond or declined to be interviewed — which is very typical; school presidents have historically tried to avoid this.
You open the film with a montage of reaction shots of students getting acceptance letters. Why was this important to include?
KD: When you interview so many survivors — and we spoke to over 150 — you just keep hearing the same story over and over. Most of these women have spent their whole lives looking forward to going to college. And then being not only assaulted, but then betrayed by their school — this is something any feeling person would want to see changed, and changed quickly.
You include the name of only one accused rapist — football star Jameis Winston from Florida State. Why did you decide not to name any others?
KD: That was a deliberate choice. There has been incredible reporting on his story; it's very widely known. You couldn't cover that story without mentioning his name. We decided not to name the other assailants because we didn't want people thinking, when they left the film, "Well, if they only apprehend this person, this problem will be solved." It's a systemic problem.
What positive change do you see happening now, and do you think there will be more in the wake of this film?
KD: There are some schools that are starting to take first steps. One thing we think is really important is for schools to have annual, regular surveys of their students to find out what the rate of assault is, and how comfortable students feel reporting, and how these crimes are investigated and prosecuted. Unfortunately, very few schools do this. Yale is starting to do it twice a year, which is impressive. The University of Michigan has put a lot of money into survivor services. That's one way of encouraging survivors to come forward.
AZ: I got a really nice letter inviting us to screen the film from Amherst President Biddy Martin. And I've gotten many letters already from survivors and parents of survivors. It had such a seismic response at Sundance, from the audience — we got this outpouring of letters and support. We very much hope it will have that transformative effect when it gets released in theaters.
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