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The Hunting Ground

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For other uses, see Hunting Ground (disambiguation). 2015 American film
The Hunting Ground
Theatrical release poster
Directed byKirby Dick
Written byKirby Dick
Produced byAmy Ziering
CinematographyAaron Kopp
Thaddeus Wadleigh
Edited byDouglas Blush
Derek Boonstra
Kim Roberts
Music byMiriam Cutler
Distributed byThe Weinstein Company
(RADiUS-TWC)
Release dates
  • January 23, 2015 (2015-01-23) (Sundance Film Festival)
  • February 27, 2015 (2015-02-27)
Running time90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$391,507

The Hunting Ground is a controversial documentary film about alleged incidents of rape on college campuses in the United States. Written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering, it premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The film was released on 27 February 2015, and an edited version aired on CNN on November 22, 2015. The documentary focuses on Andrea Pino and Annie E. Clark, two former University of North Carolina students who said that they were were raped while enrolled in school and led a campaign to file a Title IX complaint against UNC. Lady Gaga recorded "Til It Happens to You" for the film.

Background

According to Ziering, reactions from women on college campuses to Dick and Ziering's 2012 documentary The Invisible War, which focuses on the issue of sexual assault in the US military, inspired them to make a documentary about the subject of sexual assault at American colleges.

Content

The Hunting Ground presents multiple students who allege that they were sexually assaulted at their college campuses, and that college administrators either ignored them or required them to navigate a complex academic bureaucracy to have their claims addressed. The film implies that many college officials were more concerned with minimizing rape statistics for their universities than with the welfare of the students.

Universities were film's main focuses for criticism, including Harvard, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Amherst College, and Notre Dame, but it also examines fraternities such as Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

A section of the film is focused on Jameis Winston, the former star quarterback for the Florida State Seminoles football team (now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), and the accusation (never charged with a crime) of sexual assault against him while at Florida State. His accuser, Erica Kinsman, publicly discusses the incident for the first time.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) makes a brief appearance in the film.

Soundtrack

The film features two tracks by Lady Gaga: "Swine" and an original song written by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga titled "Til It Happens to You". The song won the award for Best Song in a Documentary at the 2015 Hollywood Music in Media Awards.

Reception

Critical

Rotten Tomatoes reported that 92% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 62 reviews, with an average score of 7.8 out of 10. Its consensus reads: "The Hunting Ground isn't director Kirby Dick's strongest work as a filmmaker, but the movie's powerful message more than trumps any technical weaknesses." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 77, considered to be "generally favorable," based on 29 reviews. It would was billed by the Sundance Film Festival as a "piercing, monumental exposé of rape culture on campuses". The film received a standing ovation at its premiere. Indiewire gave the film a B+ grade, describing it as a "stirring call to action". Entertainment Weekly praised the film for its strong emotional impact. New York advised parents to watch it before sending their children to college. A columnist for the Philanthropy Journal predicted that, more than any other Sundance film in 2015, the film had the potential to impact activism and social policy.

The Hunting Ground was nominated for the "Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture" award by the Producers Guild of America.

Political

On February 26, 2015, one day before the theatrical release of the film, a bipartisan group of twelve U.S. Senators, accompanied by the film’s lead subjects, Annie Clark and Andrea Pino, reintroduced the Campus Accountability and Safety Act. The act, originally introduced in July 2014, would require universities to adopt standard practices for weighing sexual charges, and to survey students on the prevalence of assault. New York governor Andrew Cuomo presented the film at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on June 2, 2015 to promote, and help pass, new legislation to address sexual assault at New York institutions of higher learning. At the screening, Cuomo called the movie "an extraordinary documentary that really publicized this issue…and show how institutions were slow to respond." California Senator Barbara Boxer responded to the film by saying "The power on that status quo side, you're going to see it in response to this film. Believe me, there will be fallout."

Controversy

Misrepresentation of rape survivors

Natassja Schmiedt and A. Lea Roth of Spring Up criticized the filmmakers for misrepresenting the typical rape survivor and erasing the experiences of women of color and LGBT people.

Charges of inaccuracy

Emily Yoffe of Slate challenged the factual accuracy of the documentary, based upon her evaluation of the testimony against Brandon Winston by witness Kamilah Willingham, who said that Winston had sexually assaulted a classmate. The Harvard Crimson criticized the film for misrepresenting sexual assault statistics and other details. The Crimson article also charged that the film's creators had included excerpts of a fake video—created as a prank for the student comedy group On Harvard Time—showing a female Harvard applicant vomiting upon learning she had been accepted to the university.

An additional controversy surrounded emails sent by producer Amy Herdy trying to solicit interviews for the film, in which Herdy stated that The Hunting Ground was "very much in the corner of advocacy for victims, so there would be no insensitive questions or the need to get the perpetrator’s side"; instead, Herdy's email said that the filmmakers wanted the alleged perpetrator to "get complacent because then we will ambush him." In response, the filmmakers stated that they believed the release of the emails to be "a ploy to discredit the filmmakers and CNN while distracting attention from the failings of FSU."

CNN has stated that the version of the film that it will air has been updated from the earlier cut that was distributed to colleges and that its version takes into account the concerns of the film's critics. However, on November 20 2015, lawyers for Jameis Winston sent a letter to CNN president Jeff Zucker threatening legal action against the network, should it air the film. Despite warnings from Winston's attorneys, CNN ran the documentary on November 22 along with a follow up program, hosted by Alisyn Camerota, discussing the film and the issues it raised.

Responses by film subjects

In an open letter released in November 2015, nineteen Harvard Law School professors criticized The Hunting Ground. They wrote, "This purported documentary provides a seriously false picture both of the general sexual assault phenomenon at universities and of our student Brandon Winston," citing, among other sources, Emily Yoffe's article in Slate. The producers posted an online response to this criticism.

Florida State University President John Thrasher said that The Hunting Ground "contains major distortions and glaring omissions to support its simplistic narrative that colleges and universities are to blame for our national sexual assault crisis." The filmmakers contended in response that Thrasher "just didn't want the film to to be seen because it criticizes FSU for their handling of a sexual assault case." Additionally, in a November 21, 2015 open letter to Thrasher (published in the Huffington Post), The Hunting Ground director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering stated that "the film is completely accurate in its depiction of Ms. Kinsman's account, and its depiction of how her case was handled by Florida State University".

Reports of inappropriate Misplaced Pages edits

As the CNN air date of The Hunting Ground approached, media reports appeared stating that a crew member of The Hunting Ground had made edits to multiple Misplaced Pages pages in order to bring the content of those pages more closely in line with the film's narrative. An assistant editor and technical supervisor working for the film's production company had openly made numerous edits, spanning several months, including to the page for Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston and to the page for The Hunting Ground itself. Such edits can violate Misplaced Pages's conflict of interest rules.

References

  1. "The Hunting Ground". Box Office Mojo. June 18, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  2. ^ Setoodeh, Ramin (May 1, 2015). "Campus Rape Doc 'The Hunting Ground' Premieres at Sundance". Variety. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
  3. ^ Barnes, Brooks (January 25, 2015). "An Unblinking Look at Sexual Assaults on Campus". The New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  4. Daunt, Tina (November 17, 2015). "CNN Defends Campus Rape Movie That Its College Critics Call "Inaccurate," "Misleading"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  5. Murphy, Shaunna (January 26, 2015). "Here's How Lady Gaga's Song About Sexual Assault Ended Up At Sundance". MTV. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
  6. John Breech (November 21, 2015). "Jameis Winston threatens lawsuit against CNN over documentary - CBSSports.com". Retrieved November 21, 2015.
  7. ^ Stern, Marlow (January 24, 2015). "Jameis Winston's Rape Accuser Tells All In Sundance Documentary 'The Hunting Ground'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  8. "The Hunting Ground (2015) Soundtracks". IMDb. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
  9. Gallo, Phil (January 27, 2015). "Diane Warren on Her Lady Gaga Collaboration for New Documentary 'The Hunting Ground'". Billboard. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
  10. Feinberg, Scott (November 12, 2015). "Hollywood Music in Media Awards: 'Hunting Ground,' 'Furious 7,' '50 Shades of Grey' Claim Top Prizes". Billboard. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
  11. "The Hunting Ground (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  12. "The Hunting Ground reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  13. Kohn, Eric (January 24, 2015). "Sundance Review: Kirby Dick's 'The Hunting Ground' is an Alarming Look at Campus Rape". Indiewire. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  14. Greenblatt, Leah (February 25, 2015). "The Hunting Ground: EW review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  15. Edelstein, David (February 23, 2015). "College-Rape Documentary The Hunting Ground Plays Like a Horror Movie". New York Magazine. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  16. Stehle, Vincent (February 4, 2015). "Film on Campus Rape Could Take Philanthropy Activism to a New Level". Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  17. Kilday, Gregg (November 23, 2015). "'The Hunting Ground' Among PGA Documentary Film Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  18. Sanchez, Hanna (March 7, 2015). "Bipartisan Bill to Regulate How Colleges, Universities Handle Sexual Assault Cases". iSchoolGuide. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  19. "Video, Photos & Transcript: Governor Cuomo Signs "Enough Is Enough" Legislation". New York Office of the Governor. July 7, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  20. Kearney, Laila (July 8, 2015). "All NY Colleges to Adopt 'Yes Means Yes' Sex Assault Policy". Reuters. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  21. Schmiedt, Natassja; Roth, A. Lea (November 22, 2015). "Hunting for the Perfect Victim". The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  22. Yoffe, Emily (June 1, 2015). "How The Hunting Ground Blurs the Truth: The documentary is shaping the public debate around campus rape. But a closer look at one of its central cases suggests the filmmakers put advocacy ahead of accuracy". Slate. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  23. Levingston, Ivan B. K. (March 26, 2015). "Film 'The Hunting Ground' Misrepresents Harvard Sexual Assault Statistics". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  24. ^ Taylor, Stuart, Jr. (November 16, 2015). "A Smoking-Gun E-mail Exposes the Bias of The Hunting Ground". National Review. Retrieved November 20, 2015.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. Gardner, Eriq (November 20, 2015). "NFL Star Sends Legal Threat to CNN Over Rape Movie 'The Hunting Ground' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  26. Koblin, John (November 22, 2015). "CNN to Show Sex Assault Film Despite Legal Threat". The New York Times. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  27. Bartholet, Elizabeth; Brewer, Scott; Donahue, Charles, Jr.; Gertner, Nancy; et al. (November 15, 2015). "Re: The Hunting Ground (Letter from 19 Law Professors)" (PDF). Retrieved November 20, 2015. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  28. Schow, Ashe (November 11, 2015). "19 Harvard Law professors pen letter denouncing 'The Hunting Ground'". Washington Examiner. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  29. "Harvard Professors: 'Hunting Ground' Unfair to Student". Inside Higher Ed. November 12, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  30. Buckley, Cara (November 13, 2015). "Professors Dispute Depiction of Harvard Case in Rape Documentary". The New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  31. "Response to Statement by 19 Harvard Law Professors". November 14, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  32. Thrasher, John (November 16, 2015). "Florida State president: 'Inexcusable for CNN to pretend Hunting Ground is documentary rather than advocacy". Tomahawk Nation News. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  33. Schultz, Edan; Montanaro, Julie (November 19, 2015). "FSU President Responds to CNN's Decision to Air "The Hunting Ground"". WCTV. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  34. Dick, Kirby; Ziering, Amy (November 22, 2015). "An Open Letter to Florida State University President Thrasher". The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  35. Deen, Safid (November 20, 2015). "'The Hunting Ground' crew member alters Misplaced Pages pages to conform to film". Tallahassee Democrat. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  36. Schow, Ashe (November 19, 2015). "'The Hunting Ground' crew caught editing Misplaced Pages to make facts conform to film". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
  37. Kruta, Virginia (November 20, 2015). "Filmmaker Caught Trying to Change the 'Facts' of Campus Rape Case to Fit Narrative". Independent Journal Review. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  38. D'Angelo, Tom (November 20, 2015). "FSU president John Thrasher declines CNN invite to discuss Hunting Ground; film crew member edits Jameis Winston's Misplaced Pages page". Palm Beach Post. Retrieved November 20, 2015.

External links

Films directed by Kirby Dick
Categories: