The Hunting Ground

The Documentary I chose to watch was The Hunting Ground a 2015 film directed by Kirby Dick. 

1. Was there a specific scene that got to you? Describe and explain how it moved you (Angry? Curious? Delighted? Motivated?). Give a lot of detail, and really dive in to how if affected you. Don't hold back. 

The whole movie really got under my skin to be honest. The amount of disrespect that the college serves these poor females (and males) that came forward. Yet the one story about Erica Kinsman- Florida State University. She was out one night with a friend and felt she was being followed by a guy, when she turned around to tell the man to stop following her, another man standing at the bar saw how uncomfortable she was so he grabbed her arm looked at the other man and said "this is my girlfriend leave her alone". Erica was relieved that he helped her. He offered to buy her a drink and date rape drugged Erica. Erica was then placed into a cab and taken to the apartment of 3 guys. The guy from the bar ended up raping her despite his roommate telling him to stop. Eventually the terror ended and the man from the bar offered to take Erica home. When Erica arrived home she tweeted "someone help me", her friend called her and once Erica explained what happened her friend called Police. The police ended up taking Erica to the hospital where she has a Rape Kit done. Once Erica returned to school she sat down in one of her classes and in walks her rapist through the door. Erica remained quiet until roll call was taken where she could get the rapists name, His name being Jameis Winston. Jameis Winston was a football star for Florida State University. For 10 months Police did nothing to apprehend Winston, they did NOT run a DNA test on him, they did NOT question him or watch the bar security, locate the cab driver that drove the kids that night. An investigator asked Erica "are you sure you really want to press charges, really think about this". Eventually a year later Erica's rape test was tested and it matched Winston's DNA that was taken, Winston claimed that their encounter was consensual. Everyone Praised Winston's courage and called Erica every name in the book, claiming she only did this for attention, to ruin a "football stars" life. Winston was not charged and Erica dropped out of school. 

This really got to me because it is CLEAR that the college didn't do anything because Winston was a "football star" and College sport investors will not give any more money to colleges with these "allegations". Which is total bullcrap to be honest. I think the evidence is clear! Winston should have been arrested, a trophy isn't worth a poor girls life. 

        2. What surprised you? Why do you think it caught you off guard? 

I was surprised that the colleges didn't care about the victims, that they just put them on the back burner, because they didn't want the "bad press" on the college. It really did catch me off guard because you'd think that a college would care about the safety of their students and not treat them like trash. 

        3.  What questions remain after viewing? What feelings stayed with you after the film? Did they "pop up" in your life in unexpected way? When? How? What was that like? 

I'm curious if any sexual assault allegations are at PNW and if there are I want to know how PNW is handling the situation. I really hope that PNW is handling the situation the right way and now pushing the victim to the back burner. 

           4. Why might we avoid including research in our summaries? What could go wrong? 

 We might avoid research because it might detour our general thoughts on the topic. So we need to document how we first feel when we see the film, its the raw emotion that's going to show the truth of the subject.