Filmmakers as activists

NOT CONVINCED there’s a problem with sexual assault on college campuses? A viewing of The Hunting Ground, the latest documentary by Kirby Dick, may help you make up your mind.

The film, which screened at the recent Savannah Film Festival, investigates rape on college campuses—which it defines as a highly calculated, premeditated crime typically committed by serial predators (some of them prominent collegiate athletes)—and those institutions’ attempts to keep a lid on the situation by doing next to nothing about it. It follows Mr. Dick’s 2012 documentary The Invisible War, which he says helped change government policy regarding prosecution of rape in the military.

“We had decided to move on to a different subject, but took The Invisible War to colleges,” Kirby Dick said after the screening in Savannah. “The Q & As that followed the screenings turned to campus rapes. We could see something was really bubbling up around the country. There was a rising student movement against sexual assault. So we started on this film in spring 2013.”

That movement included a very visible protest by Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz earlier this year, who carried a mattress around the university for months to symbolize her status as a rape victim while her alleged attacker remained on campus.

“College presidents don’t want any association with this movement at all,” the movie director says. “The subjects of this film [who describe in dispassionate detail their sometimes horrific experiences] still love their schools. The country has yet to come to grips with this.”

It’s not just universities in the U.S., he says. “There’s a problem in the UK, Australia, Canada. These are not easy misconducts to investigate; often there are only two people present. It takes money and commitment.”

This is a controversial film. Some ask whether the filmmakers are more concerned with advocacy than accuracy. But one thing’s for sure: The Hunting Ground is definitely drawing attention to its topic.