The Hunting Ground

On college campuses in the United States, every 1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted at some point in their time at school. If the purpose of a documentary is to reveal an injustice or call attention to an issue facing our society, The Hunting Ground (2015), does just that. Its powerful expose on the epidemic of rape crimes faced by colleges across the United States galvanizes its audience, as well as potential survivors into taking action and speaking out against the institutional denial of these offenses. The film follows the stories of a handful of undergraduate survivors and their cases of sexual assault, as well as the testimony from faculty, students and many of the victim's families. The impact on these students lives, as well as their families, is monumental, the response from the schools-appalling. Universities across the nation avoid the issue through the means of victim blaming, harassment and ignorance, which spurs another focus of the film. The stories of two survivors, Andrea Pino and Annie Clark, who are combating this issue by raising awareness of rape crimes on college campuses. Using title IX, they are taking matters into a legal lens and getting justice for survivors everywhere. They have developed a national network devoted to education, justice, and getting survivors to share their story. This documentary helps bring the reality of sexual assault on college campuses to the masses and raises the conversation about rape at universities across the United States to a national level.