![]() We see them hit the road, visit other schools. Pino contacted Clark online, whereupon they decided to make themselves available to rape victims all over the country. Following Clark’s rape, her adviser counseled her to look back and ask what she “would have done differently.” I’d have said, “Go to a different school.” Other colleges figure prominently in the film, but UNC deserves a shout-out for its impressively consistent ratio of sexual-assault claims to expulsions over the course of the film’s time frame: roughly a hundred to-wait for it-zero. Clark, who is, along with another UNC student, Andrea Pino, the filmmakers’ point of entry. “You just stay there, and you hope that you don’t die,” says a former University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student named Annie E. Contrary to their critics’ claims, they don’t seem like exhibitionists looking to profit from our “culture of victimhood.” I had a hunch there were places they’d rather be than trembling in front of a camera recalling the way their heads were slammed against bathroom tiles and trying to answer that inevitable question, “Why didn’t you fight back?” It’s what happened afterward, the ways in which they were stalled, ignored, belittled, shamed, and/or harassed. It’s not just the assaults that have upended their world. The faces of the young women that follow-not the same ones as in the prologue, but close enough-are shockingly aged, haggard, less angry than stunned. It might as well be The Last Dorm on the Left. Then the movie’s title fades in, as stark as any horror film’s: The Hunting Ground. Omigod, they’re in! Screams of joy, tears-the quintessence of youthful hope. ![]() A prologue features a series of teenage girls and their families: delicate, expectant faces, one after the next, barely breathing as they refresh college-admissions webpages or tear open envelopes. The filmmakers’ techniques are not subtle, but neither is their subject. Q&A: The Man Making the Military Talk About Rape What they find has little to do with protecting the rights of the accused or-surprisingly-discerning the supposedly murky line between “yes” and “no.” As with so many things, you just have to follow the money, honey. Administrators’ astonishing tendency to do otherwise is a mystery that leads Dick and producer Amy Ziering to the dark heart of American higher education. They need to be swiftly confronted and, if guilty, thrown the hell off campuses (preferably into prisons) before they can prey on anyone else. Rape is not a partisan issue, and- Rolling Stone ’s infamously botched University of Virginia story notwithstanding-there aren’t two sides to the problem of college sexual predators. ![]() Journalistic prudence would have me evaluate Kirby Dick’s incendiary college-rape exposé The Hunting Ground objectively, careful to consider opposing viewpoints and to always put the word “alleged” before “sexual-assault victim.” Journalistic prudence would in this case be an ass.
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