Reflection on The Hunting Ground by Kirby Dick

              After watching the documentary, The Hunting Ground (2015) by Kirby Dick, I thought there were several interesting elements. The first element was the implementation of interviews and personal stories throughout the film. With the topic discussed in this film, sexual assaults and rapes on college campuses, it was very effective to have people interviewed to tell their personal stories. It was especially interesting to see the different perspectives in the situations. The audience was introduced to several different types of people, including victims from sexual assaults, university administrators, clinical psychologists, campus police officers, and even one of the perpetrators. The views from various people helped get a better understanding of how brutal the sexual assault crimes were and how they are handled by the university. Although there were a variety of interviewees, we saw a noticeable trend throughout the film. Most staff members at universities tried to cover up the sexual assault reports on their campus to avoid any negative publicity and ultimately suffer financially. The system is portrayed as severely corrupt and made it more difficult for victims to cope with the situation. I found it very shocking that people would try so hard to cover up such a terrible crime knowing how terrible the effects are on the innocent students being attacked. A lot of people probably don’t realize how awful the situation is until you see several videos of victims crying and reliving the horrifying story as they tell you on camera. 

              In addition to the importance of interviews, I was especially affected by the use of statistics in this film. Throughout the film, there were many different statistics displayed on the screen from research done about sexual assaults on college campuses. These statistics help put into perspective how often the crimes occur, and the amount of reports that go unnoticed by the university. For me, it is much easier to understand statistics when put into percentages and simple comparisons. The use of these two things really opened my eyes when I was watching the film. 

              In my opinion, the use of statistical research and personal narratives were the two most effective strategies in this film. Personal narrative gave a strong emotional appeal while statistics helped display a logical understanding. I thought the film was very interesting and I think that many people should watch it because it is a serious topic that is a problem. I believe many people try to ignore the issue or are unaware of the severity of it, and this film did a good job bringing attention to the issue.