The Hunting Ground
Kirby Dick
The documentary, The Hunting Ground, highlights the tragedy of sexual assault on university campuses across the United States. The documentary focuses on the role played by college administrations in perpetuating this tragedy. More often than not, universities are caught in a conflict of interests. While they claim to take a strong stance against sexual assault and offer care for the needs of their students, it isn’t uncommon knowledge that universities have a deeply vested interests in maintaining and preserving their image in the eyes of the public especially potential students and financial benefactors. I found the documentary very compelling, distinctly in the way that it intertwined the stories of the victims, administrators, police officers, perpetrators, parents- a wide representative of those involved in such offences. While the documentary depicts the difficulty faced by the police and judicial system in indicting sexual offenders as rape is often difficult to prove, particularly encountered in a society abound in alcohol and drug abuse, the harsher aspects of it is seen in the way schools and universities impede investigations and fail to protect and support the victims. This in turn, adds to the emotional torture of the victims in making them believe that they were at fault or are simple being oversensitive. The Hunting Ground exposes a cataclysm within the society, one that needs our attention. Perpetrators and those who support them implicitly or explicitly, be it their friends, family, or even college administrations must be held accountable for their involvement in such atrocities and we must be more sensitive and helpful to the victims and survivors.
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